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THE 



LIGHT OF LIFE. 



BT 



J. L, BATCHELDEK. 



^EyoD EifJii TO <poo<^ Tov Hodjuov 6 ocHoXov^c^v ejuoi ov 
jut) TtepiTtarrjdei iv ry dHoriqc^ dXX^ eiei to cp(^'i rrfi ^aoy^, 
—Johfi viii: 12. 




THE AUTHOR, PUBLISHER, 

119 Fifth Avenue. 

1884. 






Fob every sentence, clause and word, 
That's not inlaid with Thee, my Lord, 
Forgive me, God ! and blot each line 
Out of my book, that is not Thine. 
But if, 'mongst all. Thou find'st here one, 
Worthy Thy benediction, 
That one of all the rest shall be 
The glory of my work and me. 

— Boht Herrick. 



Copyright, 

BY THE AUTHOR, 

i884. 



CONTENTS. 



Title 

Invocation ii 

Table of Chapters iii 

Dedication iv 

Prefatory v 

Chapter I — God — A Spirit, Person, Father i 

" II — Scriptures — God-Inspired . 77 

" III — The Situation — Past and Present 97 

" IV — God in Christ — a Necessity, Possible and 

Probable 127 

" V — Miracles — Credible and Rational 167 

" VI — Revelation through the Spirit 208 

" VII — The Divine Call 251 

" VIII — The Treasure in Earthen Vessels 262 

" IX — The Esthetics of Speech 280 

" X — Fishers of Men 312 

" XI — Fidelity in the Pulpit 327 

" XII— A Holy Life 338 

" XIII—Prayer 351 

Illustrative and Suggestive. — Additional 369 



Thy Truth is still the Light 
Which guides the nations groping on their way. 
Stumbling and falling in disastrous night, 
Yet hoping ever for the perfect Day. 
Yes! Thou art still the Life; Thou art the Way 
The holiest know; Light, Life, and Way of Heaven; 
And those who dearest hope and deepest pray^ 
Toil by the Light, Life, Way, which Thou hast given, 

— Theodore Parker. 



i 



PREFATORY. 



That this volume might be efficient, if not effective, 
there has been no hesitancy in the liberal use of the 
thoughts of others in their language, with due credits, 
as they met the author during its elaboration, and 
since its completion, for illustration and enforcement, 
and for suggestion of deeper thought to readers. In 
its construction there has not been aim, or pretension, 
to originality. Of this, has there been much, if any, 
in these late times? Who can claim it? To whom 
can it be attributed? What may be deemed such, by 
the mass of common or erudite minds, is trite to some 
other few, of deeper research. There have been few 
reputedly original thinkers among men ; each, in 
turn, has inherited from some predecessor; and, in 
the chymic process of mental assimilation, has made 
such estate of thought his own. This enriched, per- 
haps enlarged, has descended to successors. Thus, 
in time, new thought has flamed to vision, and new 
stars in science and philosophy have been in the 
ascendant. What was, at first, a crescent line of 
light on the opaque sphere of investigation, has 
waxed, at last, into a full orb. The primal thinker 
dates back to God, who revealed to him in the consti- 



n PREFATORY. 

tution of his mind, through His Word or works, or in 
some special consciousness wrought by His Spirit. 

Great men are more distinguished by range and extent, than by 
originality. If we require the originality which consists in weav- 
ing^ like a spider^ their web from their own bowels; in finding clay, 
and making bricks, and building the house ; no great men are 
original. . . . The greatest genius is the most indebted man. 
. . . He finds himself in the river of the thoughts and events, 
forced onward by the ideas and necessities of his contemporaries. 
He stands where all the eyes of men look one way^ and their hands 
all foint in the direction in which he should go, . . . All is done 
to his hand. The world has brought him thus far on his way. 
The human race has gone out before him, sunk the hills, filled the 
hollows, and bridged the rivers. Men, nations, poets, artisans, 
women, all have worked for him, and he enters into their labors. 
. . . Great genial power, one would almost say, consists in 
not being original at all ; in being altogether receptive. . . . 
Shakspeare owed debts in all directions. . . . Malone com- 
puted, in regard to the First, Second and Third Parts of Henry VI, 
that, " out of 6,043 lines, 1,771 were written by some preceding 
author; 2,373 by him, on the foundation laid by his predecessors; 
and 1,899 were entirely his own." . . . Thought is the prop- 
erty of him who can entertain it, and of him who can adequately 
place it. . . . As soon as we have learned what to do with 
borrowed thoughts, they become our own. 

In the composition of world-books, the time thinks, the market 
thinks, the mason, the carpenter, the merchant, the farmer, the 
fop, all thi7ik for us. 

Every book is a quotation ; and every house is a quotation out 
of all forests, and mines, and stone-quarries ; and every man is a 
quotation from all his ancestors. 

The nervous language of the Common Law, the impressive 
forms of our courts, and the precision and substantial truth of the 
legal distinctions, are the contribution of all the sharp-sighted, 
strong-minded men who have lived in the countries where these 
laws govern. — Emerson. — Representative Me7i. 

Every one of my writings has been furnished to me by a thous- 



PREFATORY. VU 

and different persons, a thousand different things. The learned 
and the ignorant, the wise and the foolish, infancy and age, have 
come in turn — ^generally without the least suspicion of it — to bring 
me the offerings of their thoughts, their faculties, their experience. 
Often they have sowed the harvest I have reaped. My work is 
that of an aggregate of beings taken from the whole of nature ; it 
bears the name of Goethe. 

The words and thoughts of every writer who makes any wide 
or serious impression are, consciously or unconsciously, adopted 
by others exactly as if they were original and independent; and 
this is true to such an extent, that an author's real success is often 
obliterated by its very universality. — Canon Farrar. 

Touching plagiarism in general, it is to be remembered that all 
men who have sense and feeling are being continually helped ; 
they are taught by every person whom they meet and enriched 
by everything that falls in their way. The greatest is he who has 
been often aided ; and if the attainments of all human minds could 
be traced to their real sources, it would be found that the world 
had been laid most under contribution by the men of most origi- 
nal power, and that every day of their existence deepened their 
debt to the race, while it enlarged their gift to it. — Ruskin, 

Milton has been called " the celestial thief." Paley, Butler, 
Coleridge, Southey, Gray, helped themselves freely to other men's 
thoughts; Mirabeau got the ablest of his speeches from Dumont; 
Fox was often primed by Burke, and Burke by Bolingbroke. 
Critics have declared that many of Robert Hall's gems of illustra- 
tion were "conveyed" from Burke, Grattan, and Warburton, and 
that some of them have been re-conveyed by Macaulay from Hall. 
It has been asserted, that all the thinking in Chalmers' Astronom- 
ical Discourses is cribbed from Andrew Fuller's " The Gospel its 
own Witness." . . . Ovid complains of the early writers for 
having " stolen all the good things ; " the early writers stole from 
the Greeks ; the Greeks cribbed from the Egyptians ; the Egyptians 
filched from the antediluvians. — H. iV. (9., in Baptist Standard, 

Chicago, III., June 1, 1884 



The same old baffling questions! O my friend, 
I cannot answer them. In vain I send 
My soul into the dark, where never burn 
The lamps of science, nor the natural light 
Of reason's sun and stars! I cannot learn 
Their great and solemn meanings, nor discern 
The awful secrets of the eyes which turn 
Evermore on us through the day and night 
With silent challenge and a dumb demand, 
Proffering the riddles of the dread unknown, 
Like the calm sphinxes with their eyes of stone 
Questioning the centuries from their veils of sand ! 

— Unknown. 

For Thy creation, although infinite. 
Is infinitely less than Thee, O God ! 
Thine is the spirit, and the soul is Thine, 
And all the thousand instincts of the heart. 
The universe is simple ; God and I, 
Cause and effect, are all that in it is ; 
And more ; for Cause containeth its effect. 
Cause, operation and effect are God, 
Nature and man ; which both partake of one. 

— Bailey. — Festus. 

God I let the torrents like a shout of nations 

Answer! and let the ice-plains echo, God! 

God! sing ye meadow streams with gladsome voice, 

— Ye pine groves, with your soft and soul-like sounds. 

And they, too, have a voice, — ^yon piles of snow. 

And in their perilous fall shall thunder, God ! 

Thou kingly Spirit throned among the hills, 

Thou dread Ambassador from Earth to Heaven, 

Great Hierarch! tell thou the silent sky. 

And tell the stars, and tell yon rising sun, 

Earth, with her thousand voices, praises God! 

— Mount Blanc. — Coleridge. 



THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 



CHAPTEE L 



GOD — A SPIRIT, PEBSON, FATHER. 

I Am That I Am. — Exodus hi : 14. 

The heavens declare the glory of God. — Ps. xix: i. 

. The heavens declare His righteousness, and all the people see 
His glory. — Ps. xcvii : 6. 

The knowable of God is manifest in them, for God inanifested 
it unto them. — Romans i : 19, 

He Himself giveth to all, life, and breath, and all things; . . 
. . in Him we live, and move, and are. — Acts xvii : 25-28. 

God is a Spirit. — ^John iv : 24. 

Have we not all one Father.? Hath not one God created us. — 
Malachi II : 10. 

I thank Thee O Father, Lord of heaven and earth — Matth. 
XI : 25. 

Gal. i: 7, J, 4; II Tint, i: 2; Titus i: 4; Eph. i: 77, iv: 6; Jaines 
Hi: g; I Peter i: 2 ; II Peter i: ly ; II John Hi; Jude i. 

Is God? If SO, what or who? Causeless, fortuitous, 
reckless, incomprehensible, and indefinable Power, 
or Force; or, Almighty Spirit, Person and Father? 
Whence man? And what? Exclusively material ? In 
origin, the last analysis, and terrene end, common Avitli 



2 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

mineral, plant, beast or bird? Or, is he also spiritual 
and eternal ? Is he religious ? and, by constitution ? Or, 
is the element or the emotion — a cultus, a habit, an as- 
piration, a sense of dependence and of obligation, or 
what? To what or whom does it aspire — is it obli- 
gated, on what or whom does it depend? Is not such 
aspiration, such conscious dependence and obligation, 
prophecy and revelation of Him — the self -named I 
Am? Is there religion independent of and above that 
which is inwrought in the mental constitution — all 
teachings of the humanly great, wise and good, and 
the common appetence of men, externally revealed — 
specially divine in its origin, and, therefore, authori- 
tative in its behests? Whence the universe of matter 
and of mind — the Seen, and the Unseen — though every- 
where and at all times spiritually apparent? Is it self 
originate and automatic, or the spawn orderly or dis- 
ordered product of this lawless, impersonal Power? 

These are the mighty topics with which the master 
minded and the common thinkers in all ages have 
wrestled; questions, which, never having been satiated, 
still are rife and uppermost; will not down; and now, 
as ever, convulse the human soul. 

All things, according to the last edition of the ma- 
terialist, in unbroken development, have been evolved 
from nebula; life itself, sentient, conscious, spiritual 
life even, from a protoplasm.' Not man himself, in 

I. Not alone the more ignoble forms of animalcuiar or animal 
life, not alone the nobler forms of the horse and lion, not alone the 
exquisite and wonderful mechanism of the human bodj ; but that 
the human mind itself — emotion, intellect, will, and all their phe- 
nomena — were once latent in a fiery cloud all our 



THE RELIGIOUS — INHERENT AND UNIVERSAL. 3 

his triplicity — to TCvev^ay nal rf tpvxrjy ^<^^ ^o dc^/na^ — IS OUt 
of this necessary material chain, but was successor in 
orderly concatenation to the ape or the gorilla.^ But 
man, the ultimate of this evolution, has thought, will, 
emotion, has he not? Then, "coming out at one end 
of the evolution, they must have gone into it at the 
other. "^ The physical, psychical, and spiritual have a 
common material origin. "The human mind is the 
product of the change of matter."^ "Mental life is 

philosophy, all our poetry, all our science, and all our art — Plato, 
Shakspeare, Newton, and Raphael — are potential in the fires of 
the sun. — Tyndall. 

Dr. Meissner proposed to show not only that heat is a mode of 
motion, but that vegetable and animal life, and human will and 
love and thought, and even God Himself, are but motion! — the 
one no less than the other, subject to necessity and destitute of 
morality. — Prof. Welch. 

Solar radiations are the grand reservoir for all the subtle and 
complex manifestations of force which are evolved in human 
thought and society ; physiology, humanity, politics, morals are 
to be viewed as only special modifications and developments of 
physical science. — Physical Fatalism according to Birks. 

I. I Thess. v: 23. 

3. The Simian may have been the successor of the degenerate 
human. — Hedge. 

3. Newman Smyth. 

4. Buchner. 

" Give me matter," said Kant, " and I will explain the formation 
of a world; but give me matter only, and I cannot explain the 
formation of a caterpillar." 

Oh! it is a sad and terrible thing to see nigh a whole genera- 
tion of men and Avomen professing to be cultured, looking around 
in a purblind fashion and finding no God in this universe. . . . 
. . . And this is what we hri\e got; all things from frog- 
spawn; the gospel of dirt the order of the day. The older I grow 
— and I now stand upon the brink of eternity — the more comes 



4 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

gradually disengaged from physical life."' The human 
mind is not merely manifested through the convolu- 
tions — the meshes and tissues of the brain, but con- 
sists of or subsists in them. All thought is engendered 
simply, solely through the collocation, motion, or collis- 
ion of molecular atoms. " Thought is only translated 
motion."' " Without phosphorus is no thought" — ohne 
phosphor kein gedanke. " Just as the liver secretes 
bile, so the brain secretes thought."^ "Motion, heat, 
light, chemical affinity, are transformable into each 
other, and into sensation, emotion and thought." ^ 
The Deity Himself, " deanthropomorphised " ^ of all 
personality, becomes an abstraction. In scientific no- 
menclature of such last analysis. He is The Absolute, 
First Cause, Supreme Power, Cosmos, Unknowable, 

back to me the sentence in the catechism, which I learned when 
a child, and the fuller and deeper its meaning becomes, — "what is 
the great end of man? To glorify God and enjoy Him forever." 
No gospel of dirt, teaching that men have descended from frogs 
through monkeys, can ever set that aside. — Carlisle. 

We may suppose as many ages as science requires, or conjec- 
tures, between the first of the human species, and the Adam of 
Genesis, without doing violence to the spirit of the story. . . . 
. . We assume, then, for man in Eden, that point in the progress 
of human development — preceded, it may be, by ages of mere ani- 

mality What the naturalist means by development 

is one thing; what the Bible means is another. The one is speak- 
ing of the aniinal inan, the other of the moral and spiritual. 
Grant that the human animal developed itself by gradual ascent 
and modification from the lower orders of animal life, it does not 
follow, that the human soul developed itself from the brute. — 
Hedge. 

1. Ribot. 3. Herbert Spencer. 

2. Carl Vogt 4. Fiske. 



THE RELIGIOUS — INHERENT AND UNIVERSAL. 5 

Subject-Object, World-Ego, Inexhorable Law, and 
Invariable Force.' 

" Force is the Ultimate of all ultimates, the Absolute 

I . There ar© no phenomena visible to man of which it is true 
to say, that thej are governed by an Invariable Force. That 
which does govern them is always some variable combination of 
invariable forces. But this makes all the difference in reasoning 
on the relation of Will to Law, — this is the one essential distinction 
to be admitted and observed. There is no observed order of facts 
which is not due to a combination of Forces; and there is no 
combination of Forces which is invariable, — none, which are not 
capable of change in infinite degrees. In these senses, and these 
are the common senses in which Law is used to express the phe- 
nomena of Nature, Law is not rigid, it is not immutable, it is not 
invariable, but it is, on the contrary, pliable, subtle, various. In 
the only sense in which laws are immutable, this immutability is 
the very characteristic, which makes them subject to guidance 
through endless cycles of design. We know this in our own case. 
It is the very certainty and invariableness of the laws of nature 
which alone enables us to use them and to yoke them to our ser- 
vice Science, in the modern doctrine of the Con- 
servation of Energy, and the Convertibility of Forces, is already 
getting something like a firm hold of the idea that all kinds of 
force are but forms or manifestations of some one Central Force 
issuing from some one Fountain Head of Power. Sir John Herschel 
has not hesitated to say, that " it is but reasonable to regard the 
Force of Gravitation as the direct or indirect result of a Conscious- 
ness or a Will existing somewhere." — Reign of Law. — Duke of 
Argyll. 

There is no power in nature, or, in works of man's 

device, but God ; no law but divine volition ; no process but divine 
performance. Gravitation is one mode of Providence ; magnetism, 
another; electricity, another; Providence is attraction and repul- 
sion, cohesion and explosion, flood -tide and ebb-tide, sunrise and 
sunset, motion and rest. All the energies of nature are methods 
of divine activity, and all the phenomena of nature are phases of 
the one eternal Presence. — F. H. Hedge. 



6 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

Reality, the Unconditioned Cause/ Then, that Force 
Ultimate must be the God, or some Motor, Will, or 
Person must, conceivably, be back of It, and in its 
exercise or wielding, intelligence, choice, intent must 
be implied, and that Motor, Will, or Person, — the 
First Cause must be the God, — the Self Existent and 
Unoriginated, Self Sustained. "Force is an attribute 

of Mind alone the only Force in the 

Uniyerse." ^ Might it not, more correctly and safely, be 
said to be a certain tertiiim quid mediate between 
mind and matter, indefinable as yet. (John III: 8.) 
That mediate may be direct from God, or God Him- 
self immediate. Is it demonstrable — is it conceivable, 
that an idea, a thought, a volition, immediately moves 
a corpuscle? "The only conceivable source of physi- 
cal force is supernatural power. Still more must this 
be the only conceivable source of thought." ^ "A tend- 
ency, to move some one determinate way, cannot be 
essential to any particles of matter, but must arise from 
some external cause; because there is nothing in the 
pretended necessary nature of any particle, to deter- 
mine its motion necessarily and essentially one way 

rather than another Motion must, of 

necessity, be originally caused by something that is 
intelligent, or else there never could have been any 
such thing as motion in the world, and consequently, 
the Self -Existent Being, the original cause of all things 
(whatever It — be supposed to be), must of necessity be 
an Intelligent Being. '^'^ 

Intelligence, intent, will, emotion, are predicates of 

I. Herbert Spencer. 2. Cocker. 3. Asa Gray. 

4. Dr. Saml, Clarke. — Being and Attributes of God; 1704-5. 



THE RELIGIOUS — INHERENT AND UNIVERSAL. 7 

intellectual or spiritual life. The higher order of the 
Spiritual is implicated in the Intellectual. The Spirit- 
ual is an attribute of Spirit, which the God is, and must 
be. A Spirit must be a Person — not conceivable other- 
wise. Infinite Spirit must be the Infinite Person — 
the God. He is, or the source of, Infinite Power or 
Force — how evolved or manifested has not been reveal- 
ed or discerned. " Personality is not the visible form, 
but the invisible soul which animates that form. 
What that soul is to man, that God is to. the universe 
of things.' " The God even of Nature, as well as that of 
the Bible, and of human aspiration, must be not only a 
Sovereign and an Autocrat, but a Father, for to some 
extent, Creation, Nature, Providence, Consciousness 
reveal Him to be paternal — His "goodness" as well 
as His "severity." The conception of God cannot be 
otherwise than anthropomorphic, with all attributes 
and emotions in perfection — unblended with human 
imperfection and frailty.^ 

Personality implies limitation, say they. Does not, 
as well. Impersonality — their First Cause, Universal 
Force, Supreme Power? If there is a limit to human 

1. Hedge. 

2. Every conception of a " Mind," even though it be described 
as " Universal," must be in some degree Anthropomorphic. Our 
minds can think of another mind, only as having some powers and 
properties which in kind are common to our own. — Reign of Law. 
— Duke of Argyll. 

Man is led more and more to see in his Maker the original and 
counterpart of himself; and, recognizing one point of family like- 
ness after another, to ascribe to him every organ, faculty, and 
quality he finds in himself; only divested of limitations. — TJie 
Keys of the Creeds. 



8 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

personality, who is able, or warranted, to assign it to 
the Divine? Who shall dare to set bounds to the 
ranges, and the cognisances of the soul — human or 
divine? "An anthropomorphic God cannot be con- 
ceived as an Infinite God."^ Certainly as Avell as an 
Infinite Abstraction, Infinite Force. " Personality and 
Infinity are terms expressive of ideas which are mut- 
ually incompatible."' There is no more difiiculty in 
a conception of Infinite Personality, than of Infinite 
Impersonality — '' Universal Force." "An Infinite Per- 
son is as absurd as a Circular Triangle." ' The absurd- 
ity is only in the impersonal illustration, and, its verbal 
contradiction. "To define God is to deny Him."' 
Why, then, do these "scientists" undertake to define 
Him? Their finite conclusion is, of course, but the 
stereotype of their finite conception. For aught we 
know, all Personality is infinite. Infinite Personality 
is certainly possible and conceivable, to the extent, 
that the Infinite is conceivable. Infinite Spirit must 
be the Omnipresent, therefore, the Omniscient, there- 
fore the Omnipotent, therefore, God. No one should 

I. Cosmic Philosophy. — Fiske. 

The mighty spell which is to paralyze all heretical critics at 
a stroke, is no other than Sir Wm. Hamilton's principle, that the 
Infinite cannot be known, because, to know is to discriminate, and 
what is discriminate is finite; or, again, to state the matter in 
another form, that the absolute cannot be known, because, to know 
is to apprehend relations, and what is related is not absolute. . . 
Thought, as such, can deal only with that which is co7i- 
ditioned^ and which is flurdl; and must, therefore, find uncondi- 
tioned and unitary being inaccessible. This inability to think or 
apprehend, except by relation and diflference, is assumed to be a 
human limitation of faculty, a provincial incompetency, a negation 
of mental light and power. — Essays. — J as. Martineau 



THE BELIGIOUS — INHERENT AND UNIVERSAL. 9 

dare to limit mind, though in this life finitely envi- 
roned, for its ranges are illimitable. The verbal ex- 
pression, — formulation of conception, thought, will, 
emotion, necessarily, are finite. The word Person, 
applied to God, "is only a figure derived from our 
human personality." "In conceiving God, we are 
obliged to represent Him as we do all spiritual realities, 
by images and figures taken from things we know. 
And, there is, of course, a sense in which the repre- 
sentation is true, and a sense in which it is not true, 
and exactly where the line is to be drawn, we often 
cannot tell more exactly, than simply to say, that we 
speak in a figure."' "In all reasoning from the per- 
sonality of man to the personality of God, the limita- 
tion of the human mind is peculiarly seen 

The personality of man involves not only individuality, 
a person distinct from all other persons, but a local 
habitation for the soul, a sphere of existence restricted, 
and an essential limitation in the mode of human life. 
Finite personality has a finite sphere of existence and 
development; in that sphere it is self-conscious; in its 
relation to the world it is altogether dependent; its 
very life and happiness must flow from its connection 
with that which is out of it, and above it. But the 
personality of God is infinite, unlimited, self -existent, 
and independent; its action and happiness are in itself; 
perfect independence and absolute freedom are its 
peculiar character. The personality of God makes 
Him in every respect essentially distinct from the 
universe. — Because, from the known, we infer the un- 
known, or, because, we believe from our own conscious 

I. Dr. Bushnell. 



10 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

personality, in tne personality o£ God, is it not the ex- 
treme of folly to assert that God's personality, in all 
respects, resembles our own.'" 

" The Personality of God is the personality of man 
freed from all the conditions and limitations oi 
Nature."^ 

A recent Positivist intimates, that some knowledge 
of his Cosmic God is possible. All knowledge of Him 
is subjective, must be finite, in reality or expression, 
and, more or less anthropomorphic. This is the result 
of the " deanthropomorphised " process of his two elab- 
orate volumes — " There exists a Pow.er to which, no 
limit in time or space is conceivable, of which all 
phenomena, as presented in consciousness, are mani- 
festations, but which we can only know through these 
manifestations " ^ This Power, then, confessedly, is con- 
ceivable, if not apprehensible. The progeny out of 
the laboring mountain is ridiculus miis. What con- 
ception of such "Power" can be otherwise than sub- 
stantially, if not exclusively, anthropomorphic? 

And, again, this author thus expresses himself: "A 
scheme which permits thousands of generations to live 
and die in wretchedness, cannot, merely by providing 
for the well being of later ages, be absolved from the 
alternative charge of awkwardness or malevolence. If 
there exist a personal Creator of the Universe, who is 
infinitely intelligent and powerful. He cannot be in- 
finitely good; if, on the other hand. He be infinite in 
goodness, then. He must be lamentably finite in power 
or intelligence." With Mr. Mill, there- 

I. Chas. E. Lord. 2. Feuerbach. 

3. Cosmic Philosophy. — Fiske. 



THE RELIGIOUS — INHERENT AND UNIVERSAL. 11 

fore, "I will call no Being good, who is not wliat I 
mean, when I apply that epithet to my fellow creature." 
"And, going a step further, I will add, that it is im- 
possible to call that Being good, who, existing, prior 
to the phenomenal universe, and creating it out of the 
plentitude of infinite power and fore-knowledge, en- 
dowed it with such properties, that its material and 
moral development must inevitably be attended by the 
misery of untold millions of sentient creatures, for 
whose existence their Creator is ultimately alone re- 
sponsible. In short, there can be no hypothesis of a 
moral government of the world, which does not im- 
plicitly assert an immoral government." 

As soon as we seek to go beyond the process of evolu- 
tion disclosed by science, and posit an external agency 
which is in the slightest degree anthropomorphic, we 
are obliged either to supplement and limit this agency 
by a second one that is diabolic, or else, to include ele- 
ments of diabolism in the character of the first agency 
itself." ' But it is apparent, that, on the generalization 
of ages, not isolated years. Evil and the Diabolic have 
been overswayed by Good, and the Supreme Best — 
that Good is on the gain, is it not? May not the so- 
lution of the spiritual enigma be involved in this 
evolution ? 

Draper, thus, states the Stoical conclusion respect- 
ing the' " Supreme Power," and the Visible Universe,, 
which, evidently, is his own: "Nothing is eternal, 

but space, atoms, force, though there 

is a Supreme Power, there is no Supreme Being. 
There is an invisible principle, but not a personal 

I. Fiske. — Cosmic Philosophy. 



12 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

God All revelation is necessarily a 

mere fiction There is no such thing as 

Providence, for Nature proceeds, under irresistible 
laws, and, in this respect, the universe is only a vast 
automatic engine. The yitsl force which pervades the 

world, is what the illiterate call God; 

as the tired man looks forward to the insensibility of 
sleep, so the philosopher, weary of the world, should 
look forward to the tranquility of extinction." ' 

The limited Deity of Mill, is a Person. Intelli- 
gence, desires, motives, choice — predicates of person- 
ality, are ascribed to Him. 

"A Being of great, but limited power; how, or by 
what limited, we cannot even conjecture; of great and 
perhaps unlimited intelligence, but, perhaps, also, 
more narrowly limited than His power; Who desires, 
and pays some regard to the happiness of His creat- 
ures, but Who seems to have other motives of action, 
which He cares more for, and Who can hardly be sup- 
posed to have created the universe for that purpose 
alone." ^ Again: "Those who have been strength- 
ened in goodness by relying on the sympathizing sup- 
port of a powerful and good Governor of the world, 
have, I am satisfied, never really believed that Gov- 
ernor to be, in the strict sense of the term, Omnipotent. 
They have always saved His goodness at the expense 
of His power. They have believed, perhaps, that He 
could, if He willed, remove all the thorns from their 
individual path, but not without causing greater harm 
to some one else, or frustrating some purpose of greater 

1. Draper. — Conflict between Science and Revelation. 

2. Mill. — Theism. 



THE RELIGIOUS — INHERENT AND UNIVERSAL. 13 

importance to the general well-being. They have be- 
lieved that He could do any one thing, but not any 
combination of things; that His government, like hu- 
man government, was a system of adjustments and 
compromises; that the world is inevitably imperfect, 
contrary to His intention. And since the exertion of 
all His power to make it as little imperfect as possible, 
leaves it no better than it is, they cannot but regard 
that power, though vastly beyond human estimate, yet 
as in itself, not merely finite, but extremely limited. " ' 

No believer in God has vindicated more clearly and 
forcibly than Mill, His power "over all the objects 
he has made," to suspend, stay, divert, and, even, an- 
nul their phenomenal manifestation. These dicta of 
His volition, obscurely denominated " The Supernatu- 
ral," Mill classifies as among "the earliest and ac- 
knowledged laws of Nature." In this, he is at variance 
with Hume, and, all endorsers of the Positive and 
Evolutionary School. "Human volition is constantly 
modifying natural phenomena, not by violating their 
laws, but by using their laws. Why may not Divine 
volition do the same? The power of volitions over 
phenomena, is, itself, a law, and one of the earliest 
known and acknowledged laws of Nature. It is true; 
the human will exercises power over objects indirectly, 
through the direct power which it possesses, only 
over the human muscles. God, however, has direct 
power, not merely, over one thing, but over all the ob- 
jects which He has made." ' 

But, while Mill admitted the existence of a Per- 
sonal God, and argued, by analogy, and a fortiori^ 
I. Mill.— Theism. 



14 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

that God could as well interfere with, and modify 
natural phenomena — but human generalizations, — not 
inherent in matter, questionably styled, " Laws of Nat- 
ure," by the higher laws of His will, as doth man by 
his, — thereby, recognizing the possibility and the 
probability of what are named miracles ; he questioned 
His unlimited power and goodness. Constitutionally 
inclined to question, thence to doubt, or, thus devel- 
oped through the spiritual bias and educational tort 
given by his father; — rejecting the Bible — as authori- 
tative at all, — replete with such distinct revelation of 
God — a Person and Father; bringing life and immor- 
tality to light through his Son; — such revelation, and 
such light, as could not be evolved out of the consti- 
tution and course of Nature, or human experience; 
the Deity to Mill, as discernible from his very par- 
tial, morbid, and, chiefly materialistic observation, 
was a Moloch, pitiless, merciless, remorseless. " Nat- 
ure impales men, breaks them, as if on the wheel, casts 
them to be devoured by wild beasts, burns them to 
death, crushes them with stones, like the first Chris- 
tian martyr, starves them with hunger, freezes them 
with cold, poisons them by the quick or slow venom of 
her exhalations, and has hundreds of other hideous 
deaths in reserve, such as the ingenious cruelty of a 
Nabis, or a Domitian never surpassed. All this. Nat- 
ure does, with the most supercilious disregard, both of 
mercy, and of justice; emptying her shafts upon the 
best and noblest — indifferently with the meanest and 
worst; upon those who are engaged in the highest and 
worthiest enterprises, and, often, as the direct conse- 
quence of the noblest acts; and, it might almost be 



THE RELIGIOUS — INHERENT AND UNIVERSAL. 15 

imagined, as a punishment for them 

A single hurricane destroys the hopes of a season; 
a flight of locusts, or an inundation desolates a district, 
a trifling chemical change in an edible root starves 
a million of people." ' 

A tragic and terrible indictment indeed is this, vivid 
and faithful enough in its delineation; but very partial 
and restricted in its statement, and from a single post 
of observation, at a point of time, and, of a mind 
finitely environed, — relieved nor counterbalanced by 
those brighter and hopeful manifestations everywhere 
apparent in Nature — in the universal sense, immate- 
rial as well as material. Shut up exclusively, or volun- 
tarily electing to be thus constrained, to such appre- 
hension of God as can be obtained from these very 
partial aspects, it is not surprising, that this mind, 
with bent and bias precedently given, without the 
guidance and light of the Spirit, and, unsought; went, 
as it did, into the darkness of that forlorn, and seem- 
ingly hopeless Eclipse of Faith. Alas! in our moody 
and discomfited hours, very many of us, sore-pressed, 
are prone to lapse into such spiritual darkness, dis- 
trust, and hopelessness. God pity us, and all like-be- 
set, in such calamitous time. Thus intensely absorbed 
in exclusive consideration of calamities, as, indeed, 
are the most of us, without regard to aspects confes- 
sedly benign and beneficent; limiting his survey and 
generalization to the brief span, the knowledge, and 
the experience of a single human life, and, that, his 
own; declining to give credence to any literal revela- 
tion — uttered, expounded, interpreted, illustrated 

I. Mill. — Nature. 



16 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

through forty centuries — ever suggestive, if not ex- 
planatory; without sanctifying, illuminating Grace, 
personally experienced; who may not be distressed, 
perplexed, confounded by his single, solitary exper- 
ience and observation, and, under the stress of diabolic 
prompting superadded, perhaps, in some hour of weak- 
ness and despair, waver in Divine trust, tumble into 
darkness, — perhaps, question in his soul, whether God 
is, and, if Supreme, — Good? "Take the world as it 
is, with all its contradictions, woes, and wrongs; and, 
without other light, what sort of God would the con- 
templation of such a world present? Possibly, Infinite 
Power; but not, I think. Infinite Wisdom and Love."' 
Over and against such seemingly maleficient mani- 
festations, incomprehensible, indeed, appalling. Mill 
did not set the manifest design of the material human 
organism — of the Material Universe Itself, and Its 
ever evident order; the numberless, merciful, and 
most beneficent provisions for the sustenance, and the 
material comfort of man, — this material, intellectual, 
spiritual monarch; for whose service, not only the 
earth on which he stands, and the heavens above, but 
all inferior orders of life, seem to exist; the universal 
diffusion of light, air, and water; the revolving sea- 
sons; the fruitfulness of earth; the fecundity of nu- 
tritious beast, fish, and bird; the unmentioned and 
unmentionable social, intellectual blessings involved 
in, and ever evolving from progressing Christianiza- 
tion. He does not even allude to the wonderful pro- 
visions for bliss in the development and culture of the 

I. F. H. Hedge. 



THE RELIGIOUS — INHERENT AND UNIVERSAL. 17 

soul, in the satisfaction often given — limitedly, here, 
it is true, — to its unquenchable aspirations. 

Keen as was the intellect of Mill, comparatively ex- 
tensive as may have been his material or spiritual 
apprehension; in fact, how restricted must have been 
that intellectual range, when the illimitableness of the 
Universe is considered. He took no note of, indeed 
did not seem to recognize, and realize that other Uni- 
verse of the Unseen. 

" Nature is not the proper system of God, but only 
an inferior, subordinate, and merely instrumental 
part, and, in that sense, a part complemental to the 
great supernatural empire in which the real system of 
God is centered. The physical order called Nature, is, 
perhaps, only a single and very subordinate term of 
that universal divine system, a mere pebble chafing in 
the ocean bed of its eternity." ' 

" The universe is far higher and nobler than merely 
a vast machine. It includes, not only lifeless matter, 
but living and sentient creatures. Among these, it 
includes rational and intelligent beings, men and an- 
gels, endowed with a power of choice, with reason, 
and will, who can recognize a law of duty, know and 
love the great Creator, and either yield Him honor 
and due obedience, or rebel and disobey. The world's 
history thus comprises higher elements than the con- 
stancy of physical laws alone. It includes the ideas 
of righteousness, and holiness, of sin, rebellion, and 
disobedience, of moral degradation and possible ruin; 
and, again, of moral recovery and redemption. It is 
a further main doctrine of this theology, that sin has 

I. Dr. BushnelL 
C 



18 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

entered into the world, and moral evil has widely pre- 
vailed, and, that there is around us an actual scheme 
of Providence for the recovery of the lost and guilty — 
to holiness, happiness, and immortal life." ' 

" Nature includes humanity, and, 

therefore, so far from being pitiless, includes all the 
pity that belongs to the whole human family, and all 
the pity that they have accumulated, and, as it were, 
capitalized in institutions, political, social and eccle- 
siastical, through countless generations." ^ 

"Concerning the justice and goodness of God (as of 
any Governor whatsoever), no judgment is to be made 
from a partial view of a few small portions of His dis- 
pensation, but from an entire consideration of the 
whole. And, consequently, not only the short duration 
of this present state, but, moreover, all that is past 
and that is still to come, must be taken into the ac- 
count. And, then, every thing will clearly appear 'ust 
and right." ^ 

"Beyond our eyes and ears, a majestic spiritual 
world is moving on in silence; — an unseen God has 
infinite, unseen resources; — the causes and issues of 
things lie outside of the horizon of the senses; — im- 
mense agencies may be at work in all stillness, and 
without the slightest show, of which the worldly mind 
does not so much as dream. If there are hosts of 
foes of God, there is a God of hosts above them. If 
there is a throne of iniquity, which frameth mischief 
by a law, there is a higher throne of righteousness," ^ 

I. Prof. Thos. R. Bii'ks. 2. Natural Religion. — Seeley. 

3. Dr. Saml. Clarke— Being and Attributes of God. 

4. Theo. D. Woolsey. 



THE RELIGIOUS — INHERENT AND UNIVERSAL. 19 

Men can find a clearer and more satisfactory revela- 
tion of God in their spiritual and mental constitution, 
— their capacities, aspirations, hopes, and possibilities, 
than in the material universe, than, even, in their own 
physique, fearfully and wonderfully made, — replete 
and potent as it is, in proof of the power and wisdom 
of Him who made. They must hie them for appre- 
hension to the superior and the ampler — such script- 
ures as were God-inspired — embodiments of the 
thoughts of those who spake and wrote as they were 
moved by the Holy Spirit;— scriptures — whose cre- 
dentials as such, must be tested and approved by ex- 
ternal and internal evidence, through the scrutiny of 
the human reason,^ of course, enlightened by the Spirit; 
— scriptures — in which God, by many portions, and in 
many modes, spake anciently unto the Fathers, by the 
prophets, for many centuries, and, subsequently, in the 
last days of the Hebrew dynasty, through His Son; 
they must recur to Christian history since — not to that 
of its corruptions, wherein is detailed the spiritual con- 
quests achieved through the Gospel. Sic Uitr ad 
astra of apprehension. 

The unaided human intellect, however acute and 
brilliant, out of its solitary cogitations, and material 
observation alone, cannot justly idealize and realize 
the true God. His spiritual characteristics. His attri- 
butes, and, especially, the pleroma of the Fatherhood, 
could not distinctly be excogitated out of reason, or, 
the visible universe. The belief in His existence is in- 
wrought in all. His personality is also inferable from 

U The office of reason in religion, is not discovery, but verifi- 
cation and purification. — F. H. Hedge. 



20 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

the human analogue. There is proneness in each one 
to magnify his imperfect fallible reason, for the ideal- 
ization and realization of God. This, the mistake of 
Israel, has been a common error, and it must be ad- 
mitted, of some of the Old Testament speakers and 
writers, — in accommodation, probably, to that child- 
age in divine knowledge. "Thou hast imagined, I 
ivas just like thyself,'' said God. (Ps. I: 21.) "Mr. 
Murdstone sets up an image of himself and calls it the 
Divine Nature."' Rejecting the Bible, unregenerate 
and unsanctified by its truth, and the Spirit, which 
pledges to the honest, seeking soul guidance into all 
the needed Spiritual verity, and brings that aspiring 
one into constant and close fellowship with the Father; 
how can such an orphan mind apprehend God, — -a 
Spirit, Person, Father, Love? How could it, through 
its individual reason alone, — unaided by such Divine 
disclosures, come to true apprehension of the Highest? 
Could it reach a conclusion consolatory, comforting at 
all, concerning the mysteries, and the incomprehensi- 
bilities of this life; — providences in humanity at large, 
and particular nations; providences in individual his- 
tory, — partially, limitedly apprehended; this melan- 
choly boom and sad voice out of personal experience 
and observation; Evil in the Universe, inherent or in- 
volved; and Its Master Impersonation, at all times, by 
His enticement apparent; their suffered tolerance; — all 
glaring in this tragedy of nature, and still more im- 
pressive drama of human history ? Recognizing only 
earthly existence, and no future life, or, in question of 
it, consequently, no ultimate provision for the rectifi- 

j. .David Copperfield. 



THE RELIGIOUS-^-INHERENT AND UNIVERSAL. 21 

cation, the equitable adjustment of all this seeming 
hurly-burly and apparent disorder; prevalent inequal- 
ity among races and individuals; the redress of inhu- 
manity, and of the turpitude of men to each other; 
upon all which mysteries and perplexities. He, who 
was the "Image," "Glory," and ''Substance" of God 
cast light; such poor, benighted soul, must, as did ever 
the grandest and the best, without such superhuman 
aid, grope in darkness, and, at the exit, take, as did 
Mill, the leap into what was to him, — the eternal dark' 
and, to John Sterling, the un grand peu-tetre of 
Rabelais." What adequate conception can the brain 
of an Infinitesimal, — invisible to the naked eye, quiv- 
ering at the approach of man, and, in terror, fleeing to 
hide itself from his approach, have of that human one? 
" To the minnow, every cranny and pebble and quality 
and accident of its little native creek may have become 
familiar; but does the minnow understand the Ocean 
Tides and Periodic Currents, the Trade Winds, Mon- 
soons, and Moon's Eclipses; by all of which, the con- 
dition of its little Creek is regulated, and may, from 
time to time, be quite overset, and reversed? Such a 
Minnow is man; his Creek, — this Planet Earth; his 
Ocean, — the Immeasurable All; his Monsoons and Pe- 
riodic Currents, — the mysterious Course of Providence 
through Mons of ^ons." ^ 

1. It seems to me, not only possible, but probable, that in a 
higher, and, above all, a happier condition of human life, no^ amii- 
hilation^ but immortality^ may be the burdensome idea. — Mill. 

I tread the common road into the darkness, without any thought 
of fear, and with very much hope. Certainty^ indeed^ I have none. 
— John Sterling. 

2. Carlisle. 



22 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

As a representative of another class, which is not, 
as yet, prepared for entire rejection of the Bible as a 
valid history, and, where God-inspired — as authorita- 
tive in precept and requirement; while it has become 
fascinated with the speculations of this new Gospel of 
Materialism, with its evolution, and its " deanthropo- 
morphised" conception of God, comes Matthew 
Arnold, with his Greek scholarship, English culture, 
— bright, pithy, pungent thought and expression, en- 
deavoring to unify what Biblical belief he retains, 
with that which the irreverent Carlisle bluntly ejacu- 
lates as the "Gospel of Dirt." As always in such un- 
ions, the progeny is hybrid. Its speech is vigorous, 
and, with a certain charm; — but it is Samaritan, not 
Hebraic. In his labored effort to exclude from his 
Ideal God, the anthropomorphic conceptions of Him in 
the Old and New Testaments, — not discriminating be- 
tween the true and the false, he elaborates, or abstracts 
this definition: "The Eternal — not ourselves, that 
makes for righteousness." As if there could be any 
righteousness, or making for it, without involving per- 
sonality. Righteousness, — right-prescription, — right 
doing, presupposes a Prescriber, and Doer, thereof. 
And, again, he says, " The God of the Christian is a 
magnified, non-natural man," — to which another adds, 
that he is nothing but a "gigantic man." He might 
have said. Titanic, super-human, super-angelic, or In- 
finite Man. Be it so. The highest human conception 
cannot be otherwise. "If man be made in God's im- 
age, by idealizing and magnifying man, we shall dis- 
cover what God is;"' provided, that human frailty 

I. Keys of the Creeds. 



THE RELIGIOUS — INHERENT AND UNIVERSAL. 23 

is not constituent or inwrought in the conception. 
Such are the meagre results attained by acute spec- 
ialists in the scrutiny of the Material Universe, and 
of human history, at the close of these centuries of 
discussion — respecting Its Factor, whose handiwork is 
everywhere apparent, in mind as in matter, in the 
kingdom of Grace, as in Nature, in Spiritual as in 
Natural Science, in human as in material history. He 
could not be whisked out of recognition by prestidigi- 
tators in "modern thought," "scientific" abstraction- 
ists, verbal spinners, and jugglers in phraseology. 
The speech of the Hybrid brays, though in silvery 
note vaticinating undesignedly of personality. It is 
the same round which speculatists in all generations 
have circled, in fruitless endeavor to find out in Nature 

— matter inert or energic, and, by cogitation, the Al- 
mighty unto perfectness; or to make that Nature self- 
creative, self -existent, automatic; to spirit its revealed 
Author, — an Almighty Infinite Person, out of it. 
The Positivist and the Agnostic have reached their 
bound. They can sublimate no further. The resid- 
uum is abstraction — indefinite, intangible, invisible; 
what but nihility? 

How refreshing it is, by contrast, to turn from such 
modern vacuities, to those vivid realizations and recog- 
nitions of Deific personality, by great souls contem- 
porary with, or, before Christ, and even before Abra- 
ham, struggling to get out of darkness into light; — 
Greek and Roman — poets, philosophers, and historians 

— Socrates, Plato, iEschylus, Sophocles, Cicero, Sen- 
eca, Plutarch, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius; to- 
gether with nameless predecessors, who, centuries 



24 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

nearer the Creation, left their credenda in the Egjrp- 
tian Catacombs. On a roll of Papyrus, in the cofiin 
of an Egyptian mummy, was found the following in- 
scription: "I am the Most Holy, the Creator of all 
that replenishes the earth, and of the earth itself — 
habitation of mortals. I am the Prince of the infinite 
ages. I am the great and Mighty God, the Most 
High, shining in the midst of the careering stars, and 
of the armies which praise me over thy head. It is I 
who chastise and who judge the evil doers and the 
persecutors of godly men. I discover and confound 
the liars. I am the All-Seeing Judge and Avenger; 
the guardian of my laws is the land of righteousness." 
" The Egyptians, nearly two thousand years before 
the birth of Abraham, were worshipping one Supreme 
God, and owning Him for their King, appointing for 
His agent and chief servant, as their ruler, a priest 
whom they called His Son. They recognized His 
moral government, through how many hands soever it 
might be administered, — whether, those of His per- 
sonified attributes, or those of His human instruments. 
The highest objects set before these people, were pur- 
ity of life and rectitude of conduct. Their highest 
aspirations were directed to the glory and favor of 
God, — in this life, and acceptance by Him — hereafter. 
Their conceptions of death were, that it was a passage 
to an eternal existence, where a divine Benefactor sent 
to dispense the mercies of the Supreme had gone be- 
fore them, having submitted to death in order to over- 
come the power of evil, and who had, therefore, been 
raised from among the dead, when His probation in 

I. Quoted by J. M. Manning, from Gillett 



THE RELIGIOUS — INHERENT AND UNIVERSAL. 25 

Hades had ended, and made the Eternal Judge of the 
living and the dead. Those, whom He judged favora- 
bly, had their names written in the Book of Life, and 
were brought to taste of the Tree of Life, which would 
make them to be as gods, after which, they were to 
enjoy such bliss as it has not entered into men's heads 
to conceive. The wicked were, meanwhile, to undergo 
shame and anguish, till they had expiated the very 
last sin, or were to be destroyed." ^ 

" The fool," — the conscience-seared, the pessimistic, 
the despairful, or the remorse-stricken, " hath said in 
his heart, no God." There was not force of conviction 
to consistently voice it. Never could he say it in his 
intellect, — his reason, — his conscience. He said it in 
his heart. The desire of that heart, was father of the 
simulated thought, — if it had such progeny. He 
could not verify the denial, even to himself, since that 
heart, in its sinful indulgence, hoped it might be so, 
or the Devil said it to him, to stifle conviction, or quiet 
remorse. In some moment of despair, some con- 
sciouness, or fear of retribution, some inane or insane 
desire, he said in his heart, "No God!" The reality 
would not down at his bidding. It ever haunted his 
soul. When he said it, that consciousness struck him 
in the face, and branded him, not only a fool, but a 
liar. Every thought, every mental or physical act, 
impinges against this wall of fact, this Real of all 
realities, God. Cogito, ergo sum. Sum, ergo Deus est 
No mind can resist the conclusion from the premise. 

2. See copious illustrations in the elaborate and exhaustive 
volumes of Prof. E. H. Gillett, entitled, "God in Human 
Thought," and the three volunn.es of Bunsen, on the same topic. 



26 • THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

No God! Nature, animate and inanimate, cries out 
against the blasphemy. No God! Then, there is no 
sun in the Heavens, and thou, poor fool, art nihility. 
No Fatherhood in God! No pity, tenderness, sympa- 
thy, patience, or forbearance to the uttermost! No 
holiness, justice, power to reward and punish! Then, 
poor Soul! thou art an orphan, but ephemeral at the 
best, with thy tabernacle — its appetites and desires, 
— all thy sensibilities and emotions are carnal, proto- 
plastic, slimy, nebulous, gassy, abstract, nominal, ni- 
hilistic in their origin, being and destiny. Death is ul- 
timate resolution to eternal sleep — nihility. Ex niliilo 
nihil fit 

There is no unbelief. 
Whoever plants a seed beneath the sod, 
And waits to see it push away the clod, 

Trusts he in God. 

There is no unbelief. 
Whoever says, when clouds are in the sky, 
" Be patient, heart ! Light breaketh by and by," 
Trusts the Most High, 

There is no unbelief. 
Whoever sees, 'neath winter's field of snow, 
The silent harvest of the future grow, 

God's power must know* 

There is no vinbelief 
Whoever lies down on his couch to sleep, 
Consents to lock each sense in slumber deep, 

Knows God will keep. 

There is no unbelief. 
Whoever says "To-morrow," "The Unknown," 
"The Future," trusts that Power alone, 
" He dares disown. 

— Watchman. 



GOD — A SPIRIT, PERSON, FATHER. 27 

But humanity has never been satisfied with such 
" deanthropomorphised " conception of God; has re- 
jected it as it has been reproduced by successive skep- 
tics, or scientists, in each generation; would not, could 
not, be satisfied with less, or ought else, than a Divine 
Person. The aspiration of David is its representative 
cry, and, well- voiced, "As a hart panteth after the wa- 
ter brooks, so panteth my soul for thee, O, God. 
Thirsted has my soul' for God, — the Living God." — 
Ps, xlii. The revelations of God in the Old Testament 
of divine or human origin, as may be believed by the 
reader, are most intensely, most profoundly of Him as 
a Person, and as Parental. He hears. He sees. He 
feels. He appeals. He pleads. He expostulates. 
He wails, waits, watches, and forbears to the last, — 
speaking after the manner of men, and, in accommo- 
dation to their kindred and analogous emotions; oth- 
erwise, they could not, or would not entertain definite, 
tangible ideas of Him. — Ps. xciv: 9. "All trust in a 
Revelation, presupposes a conviction that God's attri- 
butes are the same, except in degree, with the best 
human attributes." ^ 

The soul is religious by constitution. Thereto, con- 
sciousness testifies: — its witness is certainty. It re- 
veres. It must worship. One defines the predisposi- 
tion, a consciousness of absolute dependence; ^others 
include with it, a sense of obligation; another, a con- 
sciousness of universal relation;^ a third, more ac- 
curately and appreciatively, the attraction of the Finite 
to the Infinite;^ a fourth, a desire for It.^ It is all 

I. Birks. 2. Schleiermacher. 3. Wasson. 

4. Saml. Johnson. 5. Feuerbach. 



28 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

this, and inexpressibly more. It is an aspiration, a 
hunger and thirst for God, — a Person, a Divine Fa- 
ther, anthropomorphic though the conception is, and 
must ever be. 

The three objects of human consciousness, are self, 
the external world, and God. "What we are con- 
scious of as occurring within, we know as confidently 
as anything that occurs without. The internal facts 
revealed by consciousness, are just as much matters of 
certainty, as are those external facts, about which, 
scientists seem to feel so confident. Now, one of these 
facts which we find within, is the consciousness of 

God What I am conscious of, I know 

to be a fact, inasmuch as I am conscious of it; of this, 
I am certain, more certain than of anything else in the 

world A consciousness of the existence, 

— of the reality of things lies at the basis of all knowl- 
edge Consciousness carries with it ab- 
solute certainty The consciousness of 

God exists before any form of religion, 

is the basis of every form of religion." ' 

" The knowledge of God is not a conclusion of the 
understanding, but an intuition of the moral sense. . 
. . . . The being of God would never be inferred 
from the constitution of things, without the idea pre- 
existing in the mind There is no nat- 
ural religion in the sense of a theism, born of the un- 
derstanding; but the being of God is given in the 
moral nature of man. There, if any where, the Eter- 
nal reveals Himself from time to time, in successive 
communications, to such as are able to divine His 

I. R. W. Memminger. 



GOD — A SPIEIT, PERSON, FATHER. 29 

secret All revelation is in man, and 

through man." ' 

" The truths of religion are not discovered by the 
understanding; they are not laid hold of by scientific 
inquiry. The understanding has no God, no spiritual 
high calling, no immortal destination. Whoever 
would know of these things, must arrive at them by a 
different way: he must fellow the dictates of faith; he 
must obey the law written in the heart; he must live 
in them and for them." ' 

"That part of man's nature which science calls into 
action, is not the whole man. Spiritually, intellec- 
tually, even, it is a very small part of us, and, however 
respectable, however wonderful in its capacity, is com- 
paratively limited and transient in its application."' 

The soul, therefore, must have its aliment, or famish. 
Its consciousness of absolute dependence, and of ob- 
ligation; its realization of impotency and helplessness 
to meet its ever-recurring necessities; its irrepressible, 
unquenchable aspirations force it, answered or denied, 
to cry out ever for the living God, and He, a Divine 
Father. 

Scientists scout at the possibility or probability, 
that prayer to such a Being, if He be, will be effica- 
cious to divert, modify, or annul that which they gen- 
eralize, Law, in natural or spiritual development — but 
a phrasing of phenomena; — that, all supposed re- 
sponses thereto are, and ever must be, delusive, since 
He is unchangeable. True; He is. So is an earthly 
parent, according as he is wise and good. The mani- 
festations of love increase, and are intensified, in pro- 

I. F. H. Hedge. 



30 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

portion to the extent of perfection and unchangeable- 
ness. Petition, foreknown, and suitable response im- 
mediately conjoined, are inseparable in the Divine 
mind, must have been from all past eternity. There 
could be no divorce between them. With the God 
they have been one, each pair unchangeable in their 
manifestation — phenomena — law, as scientists phrase. 
Dost thou suppose. Scientist, that He is a stone Jupi- 
ter? Nay, He is the Living God, — the Divine Father 
— as manifested in the loving, forgiving, saving Christ. 
— The wheels within wheels of phenomena, laws so 
phrased, are circled and moved by His all-compelling 
Will. 

As all events, material or spiritual, must have been 
foreknown by ''The Eternal — that makes for right- 
eousness," — Spirit, Person, Father, — Omnipotent, 
Omnipresent, Omniscient; therefore, every prayer — 
to a verbally inexpressed desire and sigh, must be in- 
cluded. Past, Present, Future are eternal Now — to 
the "I Am" from Everlasting to Everlasting. Sim- 
ultaneously, there must have been conjoined to such 
cognizance, response of bestowment or denial suita- 
ble, — to be manifested in His way, and, at His time. 
In thy way, and, at thy time? Probably, not. Thou 
art not the wisest. Being exclusively for material 
things, or the removal of specific spiritual obstacles, 
most probably, it will be in denial, but surely with 
the bestowment of something better, — sufficient grace 
for the disappointment and its endui^ance. Teach- 
ing bitter, repugnant, seemingly irrational, dost thou 
declare? Bitterest potions are most effectively reme- 
dial for ailments of souls, as of bodies. For pure 



THE RELIGIOUS — INHERENT AND UNIVERSAL. 31 

spiritual blessings, doubtless, the bestowal ever comes. 
But, perhaps, not in thy way, or, at thy time; — per- 
haps not immediate, but mediate, through needed 
preparatory discipline. Being thy Divine Father. O, 
Child, be thou suie thy cry was heard, foreknown 
before utterance, with suitable, adequate response, si- 
multaneously conjoined, " according to His own pur- 
pose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus, 
before times eternal." {II Tim, v 9.) Has there 
been no response apparent either in bestowment or 
denial? Then, patience must possess thy soul, and 
thou must be content to wait. Realization, fruition, 
apprehension at all, may not be apparent in this life. 
Wait, thou, then, for satisfaction, till the other; at 
some time in the eternal ages, shall come the response 
and its apprehension. Faith must be regnant in the 
last emergency, in the supreme hour. There is no 
other alternative for thee. Finite in thine earthly en- 
vironments; in the flesh — Ephemeral, nevertheless, 
the spiritual and the undying Child of The Infinite, 
and The Eternal, — Our, and Thy, Father. Is it whis- 
pered, or suggested, that all thy conduct, inclusive of 
thy prayers, with suitable response foreknown, be- 
comes, inevitably, logically, demonstrably, necessary, 
and that thereby, and therefor, thy soul and all souls, 
become exempt, and delivered from responsibility? 
Nay, verily. Thou art not a mere machine, but, spir- 
itually automatic, as creation of thy Maker "neces- 
sary;" still, in thy volition "free," therefore, responsi- 
ble. Necessary, still free! Yes, as to freedom, all 
know and realize. Consciousness thus testifies, and 
her attestation is certainty. Mystery inexplicable! 



32 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

Yes, mystery, and human mexplicability of reality do 
not, cannot invalidate its existence. Do they? Then, 
all things, inclnsive of thyself, can be shuffled out of 
being. 

" There can be no one point or instant of His eternal 
duration, wherein all things that are past, present, or 
to come, will not be as entirely known, and represented 
to Him, in one single thought or view; and, all things, 
present and future, entirely in His power and direc- 
tion; as if there really was no succession at all, but 

all things were actually present at once " 

" The certainty of foreknowledge does not cause the 
certainty of things, but is itself founded on the reality 
of their existence. Whatever now is, 'tis certain that 
it is, and it was yesterday, and from eternity, as cer- 
tainly true, that the thing would be to-day, as 'tis 
now certain that it is; and this certainty of event is 
equally the same, whether it be supposed, that the 
thing could be foreknown or not. For whatever at any 
time is, — 'twas certainly true from eternity, as to the 
event, that that thing would be ; and, this certain truth 
of every future event, would not at all have been the 
less, though there had been no such thing as fore- 
knowledge. Bare prescience, therefore, has no influ- 
ence at all upon anything, nor contributes in the least 
towards making it necessary. We may illustrate this 
in some measure, by the comparison of our own knowl- 
edge. We know certainly that some things are ; and, 
when we know that they are, they cannot but be; yet 
'tis manifest, our knowledge does not at all affect the 
things, — to make them more necessary or more cer- 
tain. Now, foreknowledge in God is the very same 



PRAYER — PHILOSOPHICAL, EFFICACIOUS. 33 

knowledge. All things are to Him as if they were 
equally present, to all the purposes o£ knowledge and 
power. He knows perfectly, everything that is;* and 
He foreknows whatever shall be, in the same manner 
as he knows what is. As, therefore, knowledge has 
no influence on things that are, so, neither has fore- 
knowledge on things that shall be For, 

as a man who has no influence over another person's 
actions, can yet often perceive beforehand what that 
other will do; and a wiser and more experienced man 
will, still, with greater probability, foresee what an- 
other, whose disposition he is perfectly acquainted 
with, will, in certain circumstances, do; and, an angel 
with still much less degrees of error, may have a 
further prospect into men's future actions: — so, 'tis 
very reasonable to apprehend, that God, without in- 
fluencing men's wills by His power, yet, by His fore- 
sight, cannot but have as much more certain knowl- 
edge of future free events, than either men or angels 
can possibly have; as the perfection of His nature is 
greater than that of theirs. The distinct manner, how, 
He forsees these things, is indeed impossible for us 
to explain. But so, also,- are numberless other things, 

which yet, no man doubts the truth of 

For though we cannot, indeed, clearly and distinctly 
explain the manner of God's foreseeing the actions of 
free agents; yet, this much, we know, that the bare 
foreknowledge of any action that would, upon all other 
accounts, be free, cannot alter or diminish that free- 
dom; it being evident that foreknowledge adds no 
other certainty to anything, than what it would equally 
have, though there was no foreknowledge. ..." 

D 



34 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

"The bare foresight of a free action before it be done, 
is nothing different from a simple knowledge of it, 
when it is done." 

" Mere certainty of event, therefore, 

does not in any measure imply necessity." 

" . . . . Liberty implies a natural power of 
doing evil, as well as good; and, the imperfect nature 
of finite beings, makes it possible for men to abuse 
this, their liberty, to an actual commission of evil." ' 

" Somewhere, and somehow, there 

must be an answer to every true prayer "2 

"The order of events is necessary; inasmuch as it is 
not accidental, but governed by powers, and deter- 
mined by causes, which act according to immutable 
laws. But, then, my will is one of those powers; and 
prayer, being one of the modes in which my will acts, 
may be one of the causes which determine the order 
of events. God is in me as well as out of me. He 
acts not only on me, and for me, but through me. 
Every movement of my soul is one of His instrument- 
alities, and prayer is among the rest."^ 

1. Dr. Saml. Clarke,— Being and Attributes of God 

2. F. H. Hedge 

What if some mediaeval school man, or some impugner of the 
Baconian orthodoxy, were to suggest, that, though Law is co-ex- 
tensive with outward nature, nature is not co-extensive with God, 
and that beyond the range where His agency is bound by the 
pledge of predetermined rules, lies an infinite margin, where His 
spirit is free? And what, if in aggravation of his heresy, he were 
to contend, that man also, as counterpart of God, belongs not 
wholly to the realm of nature, but transcends it by a certain en- 
dowment of free power in his spirit? Having made these assump- 
tions, on the ground that they were more agreeable to ^' intuitive " 
feeling, and not less so to external evidence, than the onesidedness 



PRAYEE — PHILOSOPHICAL, EFFICACIOUS. 35 

True: we finite, on earth ephemeral, think, speak, 
and act in the present moment, and must pray to a 
present God in consideration of His foreknowledge, 
and of His responses that have ever been concurrent 
with it, as if He had, but for the first time, been ap- 
prised of our cries, whether our real necessities are 
comprised in them or not, and, as if, also, for the first 
time, adequate provision had been provided in suita- 
ble response. Thus is the paternal and filial correla- 
tion and circumstance on earth. As parents, we have 
been fore-apprised many years of what would be some, 
at least, of the desires of our children in the coming 
years, perhaps, anticipated what they would be from 
their birth, and have made adequate provision, as we 

of their opposites, might he not suggest that room is now found 
for a doctrine of prayer? Not that, any event bespoken and 
planted in the sphere of nature, can be turned aside by the urgency 
of desire and devotion ; not that the slightest swerving is to be 
expected from the usages of creation, or of the mind ; wherever 
law is established — without us or within us ; — there, let it be ab- 
solute as the everlasting faithfulness. But, God has not . . . 
mortgaged His infinite resources to nature; nor has He closed up 
with rules, every avenue through which His fresh energy might 
find entrance into life; but, has left in the human soul, a theater 
whose scenery is not all pre-arranged, and whose drama is ever 
open to new developments. Between the free center of the soul 
in man, and the free margin of the activity of God, what hinders 
the existence of a real and living communion, the interchange of 
look and answer, of thought and counter-thought? If, in response 
to human aspiration, a higher mood is infused into the mind ; if, 
in consolation of penitence, or sorrow, a gleam of gentle hope 
steals in; and, if these should be themselves the vivifying touch 
of divine sympathy and pity, what law is prejudiced? Whose 
faith is broken? What province of Nature has any title to com- 
plain? — James Martineau. — On ^^ Greg's Creed of Christeiidom,^^ 



36 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

thought, and could, therefor, — but, to them unre- 
vealed; and if wise parents, have bode the time for its 
safe bestowal. The children, day by day, ceaselessly 
plead for the desired, — ignorant that the father's heart 
was touched with consciousness of what would be, and 
are their desires, and, if wise parents, of what would 
be their true necessities — from the incipiency of their 
earthly being, and that, for all, they had provided as 
best they could, and unapprised, also, that they were 
touched every day, though they denied, until the 
golden juncture of fit time and way came. Because, 
thus foreapprised and anticipative, and the children 
are apprised of this fact, will they cease to plead 
for the desired thing? Nay, indeed. They will be- 
come more urgent in their petitions, the more they 
realize the susceptibility and the foreknowledge of 
their father. Did not Jesus affirm that our Heavenly 
Father has foreknowledge of our wants before we 
ask? Did He, therefore, discourage present, daily, 
hourly prayer for the desired? 

Whether the attempted reconciliation of God's fore- 
knowledge with man's freedom — involved in the phi- 
losophy of prayer, is satisfactory or not, it is unques- 
tionable, that human instincts and human experience 
cry out against the allegation, that God — our Father, 
is unapproachable, insensible, immoveable. All idol- 
atrous worship, all ethnic religions — monotheistic and 
polytheistic, testify against it. All analogies in fami- 
lies, society, and government, intimate the propriety 
and efficacy of supplication. Deny it, — successfully 
fortify the denial, and a pall of spiritual darkness 
would fall upon the human family. Old Testament 



PRAYEE — PHILOSOPHICAL, EFFICACIOUS. 37 

piety, and New Testament religion, are based on its 
duty, privilege and efficiency. The expectation of re- 
sponse is inwrought — is rational. The Divine Eecord 
is glorified by illustrious examples of its potency. It 
is replete with injunctions, invitations, entreaties, ap- 
peals, motives, and reasons for its ceaseless exercise. 
Best men have ever been praying men. *' Behold, he 
prayeth," is the significant indicative that one has 
been born again — become a child of God — a disciple 
of His Son — is passing through the divine process of 
renewal — spiritual transformation. {Titus Hi: 5.) 
That it is profitable in all aspects and for all things, is 
not irrational or improbable, but very rational and 
probable, the human relation and the human situation 
considered. Must not God be a Father, as well as 
Creator, Sovereign, Judge? If there is any such act 
as suspension, modification, nullification of Law — so 
phrased, by Him — which is questionable; can He not 
suspend, divert, annul, revivify the dead as originally 
create? Man's will, it may as well be affirmed, modi- 
fies, stays, reverses natural phenomena — law, so 
named. Cannot God do as much?' If a Person, 

I. Spinoza's position is, that "nothing which takes place /;/ 
nature can be contrary to the universal laws of nature." .... 
The power which suspends a law of nature, is just as natural in 
the universe,, as the law which is suspended. — Mozley,, on Miracles. 

The only distinct meaning of natural, is, stated, fixed, or set- 
tled; since what is natural, as much requires and presupposes an 
intelligent agent to render it so, i. e.^ to effect it continually at stated 
times, as what is supernatural, or miraculous does, — to effect it for 
once. And, from hence, it must follow, that persons' notions of 
what is natural, will be enlarged in proportion to their greater 
knowledge of the works of God, and the dispensations of His 



38 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

must He not be susceptible, though inflexibly Just, 
with no "variableness, or shadow of turning" — as to 
Eight? Are not Goodness, Love, Patience, Grief, 
over wayward children, displeasure with their diso- 
bedience and insubordination, invariably Just and 
Kight? Can there be any variableness or shadow of 
turning in such perfected attributes? The obedient 
are necessarily happy, — the disobedient unhappy. 
By their mental and moral constitution, happiness or 
unhappiness is involved in the desire, the emotion, the 
motive, the act, as the flower in the seed or the bulb. 
Being free to choose, the obedient can make them- 
selves happy — the disobedient themselves miserable. 
" If God gives freedom as a real gift, all consequences 
must be included.''" "The mind is in its own place, 
and of itself can make a Heaven or Hell." The bless- 
ing is ready for bestowal when the heart is ready to re- 
ceive. As to annulment of natural law, so styled, its 
suspension or modification, in answer to prayer; there 
may be, and doubtless is, a higher law in the Will of 
God, — inclusive of subordinate, material, or spiritual 
phenomena, which terrestrial Scientists have not 
apprehended. There are, doubtless, wheels within 

providence. Nor is there any absurdity in supposing that there 
may be beings in the universe, whose capacities, and knoAvledge, 
and views may be so extensive, as that the whole Christian dis- 
pensation may to them appear natural, ?. ^., analogous or conform- 
able to God's dealings with other parts of His creation ; as natural 
as the visible known course of things appears to us. For there 
seems scarce any other possible sense to be put upon the word, 
but that only in which it is here used ; similar, stated, or uniform. 
— Butler^ s Analogy. 

I. Mystery of Miracles. 



GOD — A SPIRIT, PJ:RS0N, FATHER. 39 

wheels of law, and the grand circling, impelling one 
is the Will of God. The truth is, all these phenom- 
ena combined, inclusive of man's will, are expressions 
of the Will of God.' Scientists have not been able to 
discern particulars enough or adequate about The 
Seen or The Unseen, to safely or conclusively induce 
or generalize. " Will gravitation cease when you go 
by?" inquires a Poet, or a Scientist. All of it — sub- 
ject to the power engendered by my will, can and will. 
I defy its power over it, when I, divinely permitted, 
choose to wield, in antagonism, the higher law of my 

I. The deeper we go in science, the more certain it becomes, 
that all the realities of nature are in the region of the invisible, so 
that the saying is literally, and not merely figuratively true, that 
the things which are seen are temporal, and it is only the things 
which are not seen, that are eternal. 

It may be that all natural forces are resolvable 

into some one force ; and indeed, in the modern doctrine of the 
Correlation of Forces, an idea w^hich is a near approach to this, 
has already entered the domain of science. It may be, also, that 
this one Force, to which all others return again, is, itself, but a 
mode of action of the Divine Will 

Are we sure that the Forces which we call material, are not, 
after all, but manifestations of mental energy and Will? . . . 
The conclusions forced upon us, have been these : First, that the 
more we know of Nature, the more certain it appears, that a mul- 
tiplicity of separate Forces does not exist; but that all her Forces 
pass into each other, and are but modifications of some one Force 
which is the source and center of the rest. Secondly, that all of 
them are governed in their natural relations by principles of ar- 
rangement which are purely mental. Thirdly, that of the ulti- 
mate seat of Force in any form, we know nothing directly; and, 
fourthly, that the nearest conception we can ever have of Force, 
is derived from our own consciousness of vital power. — Reign of 
Law, — Duke of Argyll. 



40 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

will. All things, personal or impersonal, are subject 
to God's. My will, in sympathetic union with His — 
through the sway of His, may be able to engender 
forces for the removal of mountains of material or 
spiritual obstacle, in defiance of the superficial law of 
material or spiritual gravitation. Will, of course, is 
determinate to do this or that, according to choice. 

" Every human being is himself an illustration of the 
coexistence and harmony of the Natural and the 
Supernatural. Part of his life is natural, resulting 
from organic tendencies, determined by external mo- 
tives, and another part is supernatural, the reaction of 
the free will and the power of choice. If man, there- 
fore, himself can act in this world, at the same time in 
a sphere of Freedom and of Law, shall we deny a like 
capacity to God, and limit His activity to the support 
of existing laws?"' 

There is no "variableness or shadow of turning" in 
the determination of the Almighty. The truth is, and 
a mighty difiiculty of apprehension lies in the fact, 
that such materialists, — idolaters of science — have not 
entered into the incommensurable kingdom of God, — 
bode sufficiently long so as to be qualified at all, to 
discern adequate particulars for induction and gener- 
alization, and thus to designate any conflict or inhar- 
mony between these celestial laws, and such material 
phenomena as they have been able to discern with the 
naked eye, or with microscopic, telescopic, or spectro- 
scopic aid. " Science has itself proclaimed the truth, 
that we see no causes in nature; that the whole chain 
of physical succession is to the eye of reason a rope of 

I. J. F. Glarke. 



THE RELIGIOUS — INHERENT AND UNIVERSAL. 41 

sand, consisting o£ antecedents and consequents, but 
without a rational link or trace of necessary connec- 
tion between them." ' 

Out of this elemental, this religious predisposition 
of the soul, conjoined with its internal and external 
observation, enlarged and confirmed by the exper- 
iences of other souls, has come this Rational religion, 
in distinction from the so-styled Supernatural,^ — more 
properly the the Super-rational, or the Preter-rational. 
No element in true religion, — constituent of the soul, 
and correlate of its desire and need, can be above or 
beyond the apprehension of the human reason. The 
Creator would not construct a religion for the edifica- 
tion of the human soul, which would not be appre- 
hended by it, at some stage in its development. Mys- 
teries inevitably there are, and ever will be, but their 
comprehension are not, will not be, essential to salva- 
tion. 

As to the proposition, that natural or rational relig- 
ion is the foundation of all other religions externally 
revealed — which the anonymous author of " Christian- 
ity as Old as the Creation, or. The Gospel a Republi- 
cation of the Religion of Nature," published in London, 

T. Mozley. 

2. The truth is, that there is no such distinction between what 
we find in Nature, and what we are called upon to believe in Re- 
ligion, as that which men pretend to draw between the Natural 
and the Supernatural. It is a distinction purely artificial, arbi- 
trary, unreal. — Reign of Law. 

All religion that is true is revealed religion. — Hedge. 

What is ascertained by the unaided exercise of man's own pow- 
ers, is called natural religion ; what is received on testimony, is 
called revealed religion. — Peabody. 



42 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

1730, has so elaborately, cogently and learnedly pressed 
— while recognizing the verity and authority, — if he 
is understood, of external revelation, as Christendom 
has it, — but expurgated of its humanly interwoven, 
or conjoined errors and corruption; it is true, and per- 
tinent in application for the use of men, were all, or 
the masses, like such distinguished Greek and Roman 
souls as have been specified — in whom the higher ele- 
ments exceptionally dominate, and the lower are 
depressed, or feeble in action. Even some of the 
ethics and practice of these great lights of humanity, 
could not endure the scrutiny of the ^' light of nature" 
through reason, and the consideration of " the fitness 
of things." The lower elements of passion and self- 
interest dominate and sway most men. Appeals to 
reason and the "fitness of things," — duty to God, to 
themselves, the rights and interests of others, are in- 
effectual, until they realize their lapsed condition, utter 
helplessness and spiritual necessities, through the fire 
and the illumination of God's Spirit. And, if souls 
illuminated by the "light of nature," and regulated 
by reason, are in a present salvable condition, who or 
what will wash away pas/ guilt? As avers Job, Avho, 
it must be presumed, was mainly, at least, dependent 
upon natural light for religious instruction, and whose 
cry is but the outcry of all beleaguered souls: "How 
can man be just before God?" "If he will contend 
with Him, he cannot answer Him to one (charge) of 
a thousand." {Job ix: 2, S,) Out of the depths 
David cried: " Enter not into judgment with thy ser- 
vant, for in thy sight shall no man living be justified." 
{Ps. cxliii: 2,) 



BATIONAL RELIGION — INADEQUATE. 43 

And, shall there be no recognition of the potency 
of God's Spirit, in quickening, and in illnmination? 
And none, likewise, of that malign Factor in human 
development, and of His allied forces in the spiritual 
world? For, says the apostle, and, without doubt, 
inspirationally, the personal experiences of all thought- 
ful souls confirming the declaration as verity: For, 
our wrestling is not against flesh and blood (merely) 
but against the powers, against the rulers of the dark- 
ness of this world, against the host of malignant spir- 
its in the aerial regions. (Eph. vi: 12. ) 

Natural religion, as an adequate and sufiicient 
"spermaceti" for the inward bruises of a world dis- 
eased by sin — as elaborated in this book, five genera- 
tions since, is lucidly presented and cogently applied 
in theory; but human history for four thousand years, 
and, not the less, since, has proved its utter insuffi- 
ciency as a radical remedy for the sorrowful situation. 
" The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint." 
{Isa. i: 5.) To merely rule and regulate externally it 
has also failed. Up to the Flood, the earth became 
filled with violence, — so diabolic that, it was averred, 
the Almighty was compelled to exterminate. Nations, 
since, with their natural, " ethnic" religions, one after 
another have perished. And, even the "chosen," di- 
vinely favored Hebrew, Avith the special light of Sinai, 
and of the prophetic dispensation, superadded to their 
natural light, went to anarchy, " iill iliere tvas no rem^ 
edy'' {II Ohron. xxxvi:15, 16.) Something more 
efficient was needed. It came in the Person of Jesus, 
the Christ. Still more wonderful manifestations under 
this Messianic and Spiritual reign may yet succeed, 



44 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

of which the beloved in the Lord, at present, have no 
apprehension. 

Why God did not, at the first, provide adequate 
remedies for the redemption of the race; indeed, why 
He suffered it to come into existence at all — depraved, 
and, exposed further, in the gauntlet of material life, 
to intensification of this malignant taint through 
Satanic agency, — are interrogatories insolvable by any 
at present. Into such mysteries, or, the mediatorial 
cure, angels desired to look, but could not, or dared 
not. Mystery! Is anything more common? Is any 
fact or event, — being or thing uninvested or unattended 
with it? Is life, or death, existence itself. Heaven, 
Earth, Gehenna, Providence? Do men "direct" their 
own steps, day by day, though they may "devise" 
them? 

Shall any aver, that the institution of successive 
remedial means for the rectification and salvation of 
humanity, indicates deficiency in the Almighty of pre- 
science and wisdom in the adaptation of means to 
ends? Should men question the wisdom of the All- 
Wise ? Is there no limitation to the human reason — 
finitely environed? Can it "by searching find out 
God? " Can it " find out the Almighty to perfection? 
The heights of Heaven! What canst thou do? The 
depths of Sheol! What canst thou know?" {J oh xi: 
7, 8. ) Where it fails to penetrate and to elucidate sat- 
isfactorily, should it not begin to trust? And yet it 
may find materials for, at least, a probable solution of 
its difficulty, will it consider that parents and govern- 
ments, on earth, are necessitated to employ such anal- 
ogous adaptations of means to ends, necessarily 



PRAYER — PHILOSOPHICAL, EFFICACIOUS. 45 

mutable, in the development and regimen of children 
and nations. And who is God, but an Almighty Fa- 
ther? And who are men, but children in years and 
knowledge? 

Natural religion, ' so styled, may be defined as such 

I. Natural religion differs not from revealed, but in the man- 
ner of its being communicated, — the one being the Internal, as the 
other the External Revelation of the same unchangeable Will of 
a Being, who is alike, at all times, infinitely wise and good. 

Whatever reason shows to be worthy of having 

God for its author, must belong to natural religion; and whatever 
reason tells us is unworthy of having God for its author, can 
never belong to the true religion. 

Whatever is true by Reason, can never be false 

by Revelation ; and, if God can't be deceived Himself, or be will- 
ing to deceive men, the light He hath given to distinguish between 
religious truth and falsehood, cannot, if duly attended to, deceive 
them in things of so great moment. 

If nothing but reasoning can improve reason, and no book can 
improve my reason in any point but as it gives me convincing 
proofs of its reasonableness ; a revelation that will not suffer us 
to judge of its dictates by our reason, is so far from improving 
reason, that it forbids the use of it; and, reasoning faculties unex- 
ercised, will have as little force as unexercised limbs ; he that is 
always carried, will at length become unable to go. 

If religion consists in the practice of those duties that result 
from the relation we stand in to God and man, our religion must 
always be the same. If God is unchangeable, our duty to Him 
must be so too ; if human nature continues the same, and men, at 
all times, stand in the same relation to one another, the duties 
which result from thence, too, must always be the same. And, 
consequently, our duty both to God and man must, from the be- 
ginning of the world to the end, remain unalterable ; be always 
alike plain and perspicuous; neither changed in whole or part, 
etc., etc. 

The design of the Gospel was not to add to, or 

take from, this Law ("of Nature or Reason"); but to free man 



46 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

knowledge o£ God and men, — of their correlations, as 
may be mediately obtained by inward cogitation, or 
outward observation, combined with, and fortified by, 
the knowledge and the experiences of others. But 
natural religion, thus defined, has evinced its inability 
in itself to revolutionize, reconstruct, and control the 
lives of its devotees. In its service, human instrumen- 
tality, and human merit have been compelled to repose 
on divine help in the regeneration and edification of 
souls. Though some of the natura] virtues blossomed 
in their possible beauty, sweetness, and fragrance in 
sages before Christ, as manifested through their formal 
teachings, social utterances, and philanthropic deeds; 
the fact is painful and palpable enough, that no race 

from that load of superstition, which had been mixed with it; so 
that true Christianity is not a religion of yesterday, but what 
God, at the beginning, dictated, and still continues to dictate, to 
Christians as well as others. — Christianity as Old as the Creation 
(1730). 

The Book of Genesis contains a record of the dispensation of 
natural religion, or paganism, as well as of the patriarchal. The 
dreams of Pharaoh and Abimelech, as of Nebuchadnezzar after- 
wards, are instances of the dealings of God with those to whom 

He did not vouchsafe a written revelation Let the 

Book of Job be taken as a less suspicious instance of the dealings 
of God with the heathen. Job was a Pagan in the same sense 
in which the Eastern nations are Pagans in the present day. 
. . . .• . Scripture, as if for our full satisfaction, draws back 
the curtain further still in the history of Balaam. There a bad 
man and a heathen is made the oracle of true Divine messages. 

And so in the cave of Endor, even a saint was sent 

from the dead to join the company of an apostate king, and the 
sorceress whose aid he was seeking. — Dr. Newman. — ^^Arians^^ 
{quoted by Mozley). 



RATIONAL RELIGION — INADEQUATE. 47 

of the past or present has ascended morally, but has 
descended under its regimen. ' 

" Though in almost every age, there have indeed been 
in the heathen world some wise and brave good men, 
who have made it their business to study and practice 
these things themselves, and to teach and exhort others 
to do the like, — who seem therefore to have been 
raised up by Providence, as instruments to reprove in 
some measure, and put some check to the extreme su- 
perstition and wickedness of the nations wherein they 
lived; yet, none of these have ever been able to reform 
the world, with any considerably great and universal 
success." ^ 

"To remedy all these disorders, and conquer all 
these corruptions; there was plainly wanting some 
extraordinary supernatural assistance, which was above 
the reach of bare reason and philosophy to procure, 
and yet, without which, the philosophers themselves 
were sensible, there could never be any truly great 
man. ' Nemo unquam vir magnus, sine divino afflatu 
fuit.'^ 

" There was plainly a necessity of some particular 

1. The Chinese, in some respects, are the most cultured people 
in the world ; yet life and morals are steeped in corruption. — Mys- 
tery of Miracles. 

2. Sed hsec eadem num censes apud eos ipsos valere, nisi ad- 
modum paucos, a quibus inventa, disputata, conscripta sunt? 
Quotus enim quisque philosophorum invenitur, qui sit ita mora- 
tus, ita animo ac vita constitutus, ut ratio postulat; qui disciplinam 
suam non ostentationem scientiae, sed legem vitae putet; qui ob- 
temperet ipse sibi, et decretis suis pareat? Videre licet multos, 
libidinum servos, etc. — Ctcero^ Tusculan ^estions^ Lib. a. 

3. Cicero. 



48 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

revelation, to discover in what manner, and with what 
kind of external service, God might acceptably be 

worshiped, to discover what expiation 

God would accept for sin, by which the authority, 
honor, dignity of his laws might be effectually vindi- 
cated, .... to give men full assurance of the 
truth of those great motives of religion, the rewards 

and punishments of a future state, to 

make the whole doctrine of religion clear and obvious 
to all capacities, to add weight and authority to the 
plainest precepts, and to furnish men with extraordi- 
nary assistance to enable them to overcome the cor- 
ruptions of their nature; and, without the assistance 
of such a revelation, it is manifest, it was not possible 
that the world could ever be effectually reformed. 
^ Te may even give over,' says Socrates, ' all hopes of 
amending men's manners for the future, unless God 
be pleased to send you some other person to instruct 
you.' And Plato:— 'Whatever is set right, and as it 
should be, in the present evil state of the world, can 
be so only by the particular interposition of God.' " ' 

The failure of such rational, of all ethnic religions, 
to lift up men generally to a level with their ethical 
requirements, demonstrated the necessity for a supple- 
mented, if not a consummated revelation, as Dr. Clarke 
has urged with so much cogency — immediate and di- 
rect from God, voiced in human dialect, in and through 
a Divine Person, — God manifest in the Flesh, — Son of 
God in the divine relation, as Son of man in the hu- 
man, conducted and enforced through special efflux of 
the Holy Spirit, adequate to meet the universal de- 

I. Dr. Saml. Clarke, Nat. and Rev. Religion, 1704-5. 



RATIONAL RELIGION — INADEQUATE. 49 

sires, aspirations, and the constantly advancing neces- 
sities of the human family. The Records, — at least 
traditions, of God's manifestation and converse with 
first men, all early races enjoyed. Much of the splen- 
dor of this original light had been lost to the Hebrews 
themselves, — the revelation of His Personality, — as 
Father and Judge, — His "goodness" with His "sever- 
ity," in addition to and upon that which was manifest 
of Him in the material and immaterial creation; — the 
light was ever, as at the first, but they had come to 
"love darkness rather than light,"— their eyes had 
become blinded, and their hearts hardened, so that 
they could not see with their eyes, nor understand 
with their hearts' {John in, xii) — it is always thus 
with those who prefer to "walk in darkness," though 
the light is shining all around them in meridian splen- 
dor; — or, that original and universal light had proved 
inadequate to their spiritual growth and increased ne- 
cessities. He spoke to them most memorably, and to 
all thereafter, on Sinai. Then succeeded those repe- 
titions and enforcements through the prophets, " pre- 
cept upon precept, line upon line; here a little and 
there a little." {Isaiah xxviii: 10.) 

At the last, when the Hebrew nation, foreselected 
recipients and custodians of these heavenly treasures, 
having achieved or failed in its mission, — had run its 
race, — become extinct through its corruption, and 
" there was no remedy" ; and all humanity was waiting 
for His coming; "in the fullness of the times," in the 
decadence of all previous theologies that had swayed 
the earth, He came. As the Apostle has stated with 
such succinctness and compressio^; God, who by 



50 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

many portions, and in many modes, spake anciently 
to the Fathers by the prophets, hath in these last 
DAYS SPOKEN UNTO US BY His SoN? {Hebrews i: L) 

Jesus revoiced and quickened these instincts of Be- 
ing, — these cries of Nature; God's primal converse 
with the patriarchs; these utterances on Sinai; these 
deliverances of the prophets; these teachings of Prov- 
idence; these lessons of History. God is a Father, 
and all men are brothers. He is nigh every heart. 
His Word indwells. ' That within responds to the 
many voices without. It is, through the Spirit, vivi- 
fying and energic, sharper than any two-edged sword, 

quick to discern and judge the thoughts 

and intents of the heart {Hebrews iv : 12,) The 
Spirit searcheth all things; yea, the deep things of 
God {I Cor. ii.'lO); after the Resurrection and 
Ascension, brought forgotten sayings of His to remem- 
brance; will teach the Spiritual all things, and guide 
into all the Truth; will reveal future events. {John xiv, 
xvi, ) Eternal life and eternal death are verities. He 
Himself is the manifestation of God in the Flesh, 
Savior and Exemplar of men; the Earnest of the 
Resurrection, — is ever present in Spirit with disciples, 
— be manifest again, and, the Judge of all. 

Whether the Parable of the Prodigal Son was in- 
tended by Jesus to represent God's, — the Father's 
governmental or paternal dealing with a prodigal but 
repenting Gentile world, or that of a prodigal indi- 
vidual Jew or Gentile, — thus sorrowful and contrite, — 
and thus, the simple way of salvation for every indi- 
vidual in every age, with no mystery of complication 

I. Acts xvii: 27; Romans x: 8; Deut. xxx: 11-14. 



RATIONAL RELIGION — INADEQUATE. 51 

or terms; it is manifest, that the sole condition of the 
merciful reception and the supreme forgiveness by the 
Divine Father, in this instance, was repentance, with 
the attendant fruits consequent and meet, — in a radical 
change of life. True, there remains, and must ever 
remain, as human logic serves, the prodigal's Past, — 
unremedied, uncancelled, as it, both internal and ex- 
ternal, ill affected the realm Spiritual, and, in the 
external act, specially, — the Material, So far as his 
ungodly life maleficiently affected others, such mate- 
rial and spiritual consequences could not be stayed at 
all, save by Divine interposition, — possible, of course, 
as all things are possible with God, though it has 
never been interposed, so far as has been discerned, 
in the history of the human race, — so as to utterly, 
supremely avert. And, even the prodigal himself, — 
though forgiven by his Heavenly Parent, and his 
riotous career, for which he is shamed and sorrow- 
stricken, is, — after human appreciation, said to be 
remembered no more, — remembered no more for charge 
and accusation by the Forgiving One, — even the prod- 
igal himself must, to the degree of his prodigality, 
through his eternity, be a spiritual cripple from the 
stalwart child he might have been. The scars upon 
the soul of the ravages of sin will ever remain, though 
the wound be healed. ' 

I. The following delineation from a sturdy unbeliever in the 
specialties of the New Testament, indeed, in the Old Testament, 
as historically reliable, — is indeed terrible, and doubtless warranted 
by the truth with respect to the entire race, without exception, 
were men left altogether to the inevitable consequences of their 
conduct, without any remedial, mediatorial interposition of the 



52 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

Who or what renders the legal satisfaction for this 
Past; eliminates its evil, propagated and intensified 
through transmission and by reproduction, stays its con- 
sequences upon others indissolubly conjoined by in- 
heritance or association, — otherwise, in the nature of 
things, inevitable and eternal; and, in what way, and 
after what manner, it is done; where the instrumen- 
tality of the Son of God, in this reconciliation, — this 
at-one-ment, between the wronged Parent and this 

Almightj, — must be altogether true with regard to the impeni- 
tent and the utterly incorrigible : 

'' A sin without its punishment is as impossible, as complete 
contradiction in terms, as a cause without an effect. 

Sin contains its own retributive penalty as surely and as natu- 
rally as the acorn contains the oak. Punishment is not the exe- 
cution of a sentence, but the occurrence of an effect. We can be 
saved from the punishment of sin, only by being saved from its 
commission. . . There can be no forgiveness of sins. . . 

There is no interference with, or remittance of, or protection 
from their natural effects; God will not interpose between the 
cause and its consequence; "whatsoever a man soweth, that 
shall he also reap.^^ An awful consideration this ; yet all reflec- 
tion, all experience confirms its truth. The sin which has debased 
our soul may be repented of, may be turned from, but the injury 
is done. The debasement may be redeemed by after efforts, the 
stain may be obliterated by bitterer struggles and severer suffer- 
ings, by faith in God's love and communion with His Spirit; but 
the efforts and the endurance which might have raised the soul to 
the loftiest heights, are now exhausted in merely regaining what 
it has lost. There must always be a wide difference between him 
who only ceases to do evil, and him who has always done well; 
between the man who began to serve his God as soon as he knew 
that he had a God to serve, and the man who only turns to 
Heaven after he has exhausted all the indulgences of earth. 

You may repent, — you may, after agonizing struggles, regain 
the path of virtue ; your spirit may re-achieve its purity through 



RATIONAL RELIGION — INADEQUATE. 53 

prodigal child, comes into this Narrative or Parable, 
Jesus did not indicate; unless He intended it should 
be recognized in the revelation and in the manifesta- 
tion of the Fatherhood, through Himself thus illus- 
trated, — in the sublime patience, the infinite love, the 
exquisite tenderness, the untiring forbearance, the 
unlimited sacrifice, — all through and triumphant over 
the crucifixion of the Father's heart, — which manifes- 
tation of the Paternal, throughout all His varied 
teachings. He specially brought to light, — with such 
affluence and majesty, ever enforced. 

The inherent and first principles of all religion, — 
thus substantiated and reinforced, — excluding the 
superstitions, traditions, ceremonies, and practices 
which men, — -heathen or Christian, have interwoven 
with them, must be recognized and revered, especially 
by Christian missionaries. Paul commended the 
Athenians for being very religious. "Whom there- 
fore ye ignorantly worship. Him declare I unto you." 

much anguish, and after many stripes; but the weaker fellow 
creature whom you led astray, whom you made a sharer in your 
guilt, but whom you cannot make a sharer in your repentance 
and amendment, whose downward course (the first step of which 
you taught) you cannot check, but are compelled to witness, what 
''forgiveness" of sins can avail you there? There is your perpet- 
ual, your inevitable punishment, which no repentance can alleviate 

and no mercy can remit 

Perhaps you have led a life of dissipation and excess, which has 
undermined and enfeebled your constitution, and you have trans- 
mitted this injured and enfeebled constitution to your children, 
and they suffer, in consequence, through life; suffering, perhaps 
even sin, is entailed upon them ; your repentance, were it in sack- 
cloth and ashes, cannot help you or them. Your punishment is 
tremendous, but it. is legitimate and inevitable. You have broken 



54 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

Ohristian missionaries must not be less wise and sens- 
ible, otherwise they cannot hope to secure the attention 
of the thoughtful and the intelligent heathen. And, 
they must not fail to expose and denounce the wicked- 
ness and glaring inconsistencies of those, who, devel- 
oped under Christian civilization, for sordid or com- 
mercial purposes, — even professedly missionary, go to 
the heathen, and, by bad or self-seeking lives, defame 
the Christian name. 

Roman history does not record a more flagitious, in- 
human, and protracted spoliation of an unoffending 
people by Roman Pagans, than that of India, partic- 
ularly, the Hindoos, by the English government, — 
professedly Christian! The facts, " detailed even by 
English historians, make the blood curdle, the equable 
to shudder, and all to tremble, when they consider 
that God is just. Does not He who sitteth on the 
circle of the heavens note? Be thou sure He does. 
Will He not be avenged on such a nation as this ? Be 
thou sure He will.— iVo Christianization of India 
until British oppression is eradicated. Shall it be by 
repentance, restoration, and recompense? or, through 

Nature's laws, or jou have ignored them ; and no one violates or 
neglects them with impunity. What a lesson for timely reflection 
and obedience is here ! 

But no — there is no forgiveness of sins; the injured party may 
forgive you. Your accomplice or victim may forgive you, accord- 
ing to the meaning of human language ; but the deed is done, and 
all the powers of Nature, were they to conspire in your behalf, 
could not make it undone ; the consequences to the body, the con- 
sequences to the soul, though no man inay perceive them, are 
there^ are written in the annals of the Past, and must reverberate 
through all time." — Greg^ Creed of Christendom, 



THE LIGHT OF LIFE IN CHRIST. 55 

the ultima ratio of the Almighty, — extermination?^ 
In the wonderful inspiration, elevation, and cleans- 
ing of humanity during these past eighteen centuries, 
as contrasted with its slow advance to the best, if not 
its retrogression to the worst, for the first forty, is 
such a proof of the divine origin of Christianity as 
cannot be gainsaid. Its specialties, — God — the Father, 
Jesus — God manifest in the flesh, Savior, Mediator, 
and Judge; the Spirit — Quickener, Sanctifier, Con- 
soler, Reprover, Enlightener; Regeneration and Ren- 
ovation ( Titus Hi: 5) a necessity; Salvation — by Grace; 
and future existence assured, — in place or state, ac- 
cording to character in the present life, — vividly, 
impressively revealed, are to be proclaimed to the 

I. "It was the decisive testimony of Hastings that the Hindoos 
were a remarkably temperate people before evil communication 
w^ith the Europeans had corrupted them." 

" England found India and China comparatively free from 
intemperance through the positive restraint of Buddhism and 
Mohammedanism. She has established in these countries the 
most extensive and deeply rooted debauchery the vs^orld has 
known." 

Campbell affirmed, in his work on India: "The longer we 
(Englishmen) possess a province, the more common and grave 
does perjury become." 

" The venality and arbitrariness of the Courts became intolera- 
ble, and were among the leading causes of the Rebellion." 

Macauley declared that, "The East India Company was not 
only powerless to repress crime, but a great engine of oppression 
and corruption." 

The true history of England (her government) is enough to 
make a world full of infidels. Ireland and India tell tales of blood 

about the religion (government) of England Her 

religion (governinent) is described in three words, — pridc^ avarice^ 
and oppression. — " The Toting Irishman^^ (Dr. Spencer.') 



56 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

heathen world, and, until received and rejected, as 
"- God is no respecter of persons," — "In every nation, 
he that feareth Him, and worketh righteousness, is 
acceptable to Him,'' {Acts x : 35. ) " Love is of God, 
and every one that loveth is begotten of God, and 
knoweth God." {I John iv:7,) "Ye know, that 
every one also that doeth righteousness is begotten of 
Him." {IJohnii:29,)' 

I. There are people who, from mere ignorance of the ancient 
religions of mankind, have adopted a doctrine more unchristian 
than any that could be found in the pages of the religious books 
of antiquity, namely, that all the nations of the earth, before the 
rise of Christianity, were mere outcasts, forsaken and forgotten 
of their Father in heaven, without a knowledge of God, without 

a hope of salvation If we believe that there is a 

God, and, that He created heaven and earth, and, that He ruleth 
the world by his unceasing Providence, we cannot believe that 
millions of human beings, all created like ourselves in the image 
of God, were, in their times of ignorance, so utterly abandoned, 
that their whole religion was a falsehood, their whole worship a 
farce, their whole life a mockery Those who im- 
agine that, in order to make sure of their own salvation, they 
must have a great gulf fixed between themselves and all the other 
nations of the world, — ^between their own religion and the religions 
of Zoroaster, Buddha, or Confucius, can hardly be aware how 
strongly the interpretation of the history of the religions of the 
world, as an education of the human race, can be supported by 
authorities before which they themselves would probably bow in 
silence. — Jlfax Muller^ Science of Religion. 

Is it not a great mistake, to think that the obligation of moral 
duties does solely depend upon the revelation of God's will, made 
to us in the Holy Scriptures? Is it not plain that mankind was 
always under a Law, even before God made an external or ex- 
traordinary revelation? Else how could God judge the world? 
How should they, to whom the Word of God never came, be 
acquitted or condemned at the last Day ? for where there is no 



THE LIGHT OF LIFE IN CHBIST. 57 

We take these pledges, and these asseverations, from 
God through His Spirit, — in the words of His servants, 
and flame them to vision in living light, and bid all 
benighted souls, in every part of the earth, who have 
not been permitted to hear of this Deific manifesta- 
tion in the Flesh;' yet who struggle and aspire to 
know, love God, and to do His will according to their 

light, — TO LOOK UPON THEM, TO TAKE HEAET, AND TO 

LIVE. " Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends 
of the earth; for I am God, and there is no one else," 
{Isaiah xlv:22.) 

Law, there can be neither obedience nor transgression. — Bishop 
Tillot son ^quoted by the author of '''-Christianity as Old as the CreatiorC 

I. Though the redemption purchased by the Son of God is not 
indeed actually made known to all men; yet, as no man ever 
denied, but that the benefit of the death of Christ extended back- 
wards to those who lived before His appearance in the world ; so 
no man can prove but that the same benefit may likewise extend 
itself forwards to those who never heard of His appearance, though 
they lived after it. — Dr, Sam' I Clarke, 



ILLUSTRATIVE AND SUGGESTIVE. 



All religion reposes upon the idea of God as its foundation. 
In the beginning, says Moses, God created the heavens and the 
earth. But who is God? and where is the evidence of His exist- 
ence? All these must be settled points before the Scriptures can 

be to us of the slightest authority What mind is 

there that would be convinced of the Being of a God from the 
witnessing of some temporary change in the laws of nature, when 
it had totally failed of gaining such conviction from the perpetual 
and standing wonder of creation itself? 

All revealed religion, accordingly, rests upon the pedestal of 
material religion ; all inaterial religion, again, rests upon the exist- 
ence of a God; and the certainty of His existence must be derived 
from the relation of the laws of nature to those of the human 
mind. If these law^s be not established, natural religion fails of a 
foundation ; and, if the foundation of material religion sinks, the 
whole authority of revealed religion sinks with it to a nonentity. 

" God makes His first and fundamental revelation to us in the 
constitution of our own minds." 

All revelation is made to the interior being of a man ; . . . 
the Scriptures . . . cannot be an actual revelation to anyone 
until they have awakened within him the power of spiritual dis- 
cernment. 

There has been really but one system among the enlightened of 
mankind, from the earliest ages of the world to the present time. 
Revealed at three different epochs, it has not changed its essence 
in passing from one age into another, but only varied its form. 
The religion of the Patriarch, of the Jew, of the Christian, is 
really one and the same; and the truth which it contains has 
gradually been developing itself with greater clearness from one 
dispensation to another. — Morell^ Hist, of Philosophy. 

Natural religion is in reality the greatest gift that God has be- 
stowed on the children of man, and without it, revealed religion 



ETHNIC RELIGIONS. 59 

itself would have no firm foundation, no living roots in the heart 
of men. 

Everjw^here, ..... among the lowest of the low in 
the scale of humanity, there are, if we will but listen, whisperings 
about divine beings, imaginings of a future life ; there are prayers 
and sacrifices which, even in their most degraded and degrading 
form, still bear witness to that old and ineradicable faith, that 
everywhere there is a God to hear our prayers, if we will but call 
on Him, and to accept our offerings, if they are offered, as a ran- 
som for sin, or as a token of a grateful heart. 

An intuition of God, a sense of human weakness and depend- 
ence, a belief in a Divine government of the world, a distinction 
between good and evil, and a hope of a better life, — these are some 
of the radical elements of all religion. As said Augustine: 
"What is now called the Christian religion, has existed among 
the ancients, and was not absent from the beginning of the human 
race, until Christ came in the flesh ; from which time the true 
religion, which existed already, began to be called Christian." 
Hence, Christ said to the centurion of Capernaum, " Many shall 
come from the east and the west, and shall sit down with Abra- 
ham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven." 

We can hear in all religions a groaning of the spirit, a struggle 
to conceive the inconceivable, to utter the unutterable, a longing 
after the Infinite, a love of God. — Max Muller^ Chi;ps from a Ger- 
man WorksJiop, 

If in Revelation there be found any passages, the seeming mean- 
ing of which is contrary to Natural Religion, we may most cer- 
tainly conclude such seeming meaning not to be the real one. — 
Butler'' s Analogy. 

I wonder that any one « can suppose that the 

morality of the New Testament was announced, or intended, as a 
complete doctrine of morals. The Gospel always refers to a pre- 
existing morality, and confines its precepts to the particulars in 
which that morality was to be corrected, or superseded by a wider 
and higher. — Mill. 

Christianity does not rest on a special class of facts, but upon 
all the facts of nature and humanity ; its authority does not repose 
alone on the peculiar and supernatural events which transpired in 



60 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

Palestine, but also upon the still broader foundations of the ideas 
and laws of the reason, and the common wants and instinctive 
yearnings of the human heart. — Cocker^ Christianity and Greek 
Philosojfhy. 

All truth is revealed truth ; it all comes from God, and, there- 
fore, so far as ethnic religions contain truth, they also are revela- 
tions. 

Ethnic religions partially satisfied a great hunger of the human 
heart. They exercised some restraint on human wilfulness and 
passion Can it be, that God has left Himself with- 
out a witness in the world, except among the Hebrews in ancient 
times and the Christians in modern times? The Father of the 
human race is represented as selecting a few of His children to 
keep near Himself, and as leaving all the rest to perish in their 

ignorance and error Paul teaches that " all nations 

dwelling on all the face of the earth" may not only seek and feel 
after God, but also find Him. But as all living in heathen lands 
are heathen, if they find God at all, they must find Him through 
heathenism. The pagan religions are the efforts of man to feel 
after God. Jesus also declared that the Roman centurion and the 
Phoenician woman already possessed great faith, the centurion — 
more than He had yet found in Israel. Paul told the Athenians 
that they are already worshiping the true God, though ignorantly 
worshiped. — J, F. Clarke. 

In the religions of the world, are invested the thoughts and 
hopes, the beliefs and aspirations of millions of human souls, of 
races and ages. They contain such light as man has been able to 
find, — as has been given to him, about his relation to the invisible 
world. They express w^hat is deepest, they embody what is high- 
est, in the life of the races and times to which they belong. Thej^ 
are the effort of the human soul under different conditions of time 
and place; the struggle, often dark, and always insufficient, of 
humanity after lost perfection and an unknoAvn God. — 5". L. Cald- 
'welly Baft, ^arterly. 

The essential truths of religion are natural, constitutional, or- 
ganic. They have their elements in man's own nature. They 
were not first created when they were declared by inspired men 
to the world Conscience was created before there 



ETHNIC RELIGIONS. 61 

could be a law of conscience The whole moral 

constitution inheres in man Any great fundamental 

truth found in the Bible — grounds itself at last on natural law. — 
H. W. Beecher. 

If you will take the pains to travel through the world, you may 
find towns and cities without walls, without letters, without kings, 
without houses, without wealth, without money, without theatres 
and places of exercise ; but there was never seen, nor shall be seen 
by man, any city without temples and Gods ; or without making 
use of prayers, oaths, divinations, and sacrifices, for the obtaining 
of blessings and benefits, and the averting of curses and calami- 
ties. Nay, I am of opinion, that a city might sooner be built 
without any ground to fix it on, than a common weal be consti- 
tuted together, void of any religion and opinion of the Gods ; or 
being constituted, — be preserved. — Plutarch. 

In each of the many forms which Christianity has assumed 
in the world, holy men have lived and died, and have had the wit- 
ness of the Spirit that they were not far from the truth. It may 
be, that the faith which saves is the same thing held in common 
by all sincere Christians, and by those as well who should come 
from the east and the west, and sit down in the kingdom of God 
when the children of the covenant would be cast out. It may be, 
that the true teaching of our Lord is overlaid with doctrines; 
and theology, when insisting on the reception of its huge catena 
of formulas, may be binding a yoke upon our necks which neither 
we nor our fathers were able to bear. — Froude. 

Constituting a body of comparative divinity, each religion is a 
contribution to the revelation made to mankind from time to time. 
Christianity, as the religion of the most advanced nations, is fast 
absorbing the beauty, the thought, the truth of other religions, 
and this fact should find expression also. — Co7icord Days^ Alcott. 

Heathenism seems to be the degeneracy, in various ways and 
degrees, of one primitive religion, and is related to the ancient 
dispensations, recorded in the Hebrew Scriptures, as mediaeval 
Christianity to the Gospel. — Comparative Hist, of Religions^ Prof , 
Moffat. 

The three great historical nations had to contribute, each in its 
own peculiar way, to prepare the soil for the planting of Chris- 



62 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

tianity, — the Jews on the side of the religious element; the 
Greeks on the side of science and art; the Romans, as masters of 
the v/orld, on the side of the political element. — Meander , 

The Stoic taught that the highest end of life is to contemplate 
truth, and to obey the Eternal Reason, and the immutable law of 
the universe, — that God is to be revered above all beings, to be 
acknowledged in all events, and to be universally submitted to; 
that the noblest office of wisdom is to subject the passions, the 
dispositions, and conduct to reason and virtue; that virtue is the 
supreme good, and is to be pursued for its own sake, and not from 
fear or from hope ; that it is sufficient for happiness, and is seated 
only in the mind, and being so, renders men independent of all 
external events, and happy in every condition ; that the conscious- 
ness of well doing is reward enough without the approbation of 
others, without even the knowledge of our good deeds, and, that 
no prospect of self-indulgence, and no fear of loss, or pain, or 
death, must be suffered to turn us aside from truth and virtue." — 
BurmaJi^s Great Missionary. 

The Greek religion was delicious, without austerity, asceticism, 
or terror; a religion filled with forms of beauty and nobleness, 
kindred to their own ; with gods who were capricious, indeed, but 
never stern, and seldom jealous or very cruel. It was a heaven 
so near at hand, that their own heroes climbed into it and became 
demi-gods. — darkens Ten Religions. 

There is but one God. Men ought to love and serve Him, and 
to endeavor to resemble Him in holiness and righteousness. He 
rewards humility, and punishes pride. 

The true happiness of man consists in being united to God, — 
his only misery in being separated from Him. 

The soul is mere darkness, unless it be illuminated by God; 
men are incapable even of praying well, unless God teaches them 
that prayer, which alone can be useful to them. 

There is nothing solid and substantial but piety, — this is the 
source of virtues, and the gift of God. 

It is better to die than to sin. . . . We ought continually 
to be learning to die, and yet to endure life, in obedience to God. 

It is a crime to hurt our enemies, and to revenge ourselves for 
the injuries we have received. 



GEEEK RELIGIONS. 63 

It is better to suffer wrong than to do it. 

God is the sole cause of good, and cannot be the cause of evil, 
which proceeds from our disobedience, and the ill use we make of 
our liberty. 

Self-love produces discord and division which reign among 
men, and is the cause of their sins ; the love of our neighbors, 
which proceeds from the love of God as its principle, produces 
that sacred union which makes families, republics, and kingdoms 
happy. 

The world is corrupt. We ought to fly from it to join ourselves 
to God, who alone is our health and life ; while we live in this 
world we are surrounded by enemies, and have a continual com- 
bat to endure, which requires on our part a resistance without 
intermission; we cannot conquer unless God or angels come to 
our help. 

The Word (Logos) formed the world, and rendered it visible ; 
the knowledge of the Word makes us live very happily here 
below, — thereby we obtain felicity after death. 

The soul is immortal. The dead shall rise again. There shall 
be a final judgment both of the righteous and of the wicked, 
when men shall appear only with their virtues or vices, which 
shall be the occasion of their eternal happiness or misery. — Soc- 
ratic^ or Platonic Philosophy. 

We should consider this, that if the soul is immortal, it requires 
our care not only for the present time, which we call life, but for 
all time ; and the danger would now appear to be dreadful, if we 
should neglect it. For if death were a deliverance from every- 
thing, it would be a great gain to the wicked, when they die, to be 
delivered at the same time from the body and from their vices 
together with the soul ; but now, since it appears to be immortal, 
it can have no other refuge from evils, nor safety, except by 
becoming as good and wise as possible. — Phcedo^ Socrates. 

Socrates. " Are we to say that we are never intentionally to do 
wrong, or that in one way we ought and in another way we ought 
not to do wrong ; or is doing wrong always evil and dishonorable, 
as I was just now saying, and as has been already acknowledged 
by us.^ . . . . . Or are we to rest assured, in spite of the 
opinions of the many, and in spite of consequences, whether 



64 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

better or worse, of the truth of what was then said, that injustice 
is always an evil and dishonor to him who acts unjustly? Shall 
we affirm that?" 

Crito. " Yes." 

Soc. " Then we must do no wrong? " 

Cr. " Certainly not." 

Soc. '■'■ Nor when injured injure in return, as the many imagine; 
for we must injure no one at all?" 

Cr. " Clearly not." 

Soc. Again, Crito, may we do evil ? " 

Cr. " Surely not, Socrates." 

Soc. And what of doing evil in return for evil, as the many 
generally do — is that just or not? " 

Cr. " Not just." 

Soc. "For doing evil to another is the same as injuring him?" 

Cr. " Very true." 

Soc. " Then we ought not to retaliate or render evil for evil to 
any one, whatever evil we may have suffered from him." 

Great God, give us the good things that are necessary for us, 
whether w^e ask them or not ; and keep evil things from us, even 
when we ask them of thee. — Prayer., composed by Poet Alcibiades 
for Ins friends- 

Gnosticism was a composite of at least four other religions, — 
Parseeism, once the dominant religion of Persia ; Hellenism, as 
modified by Plato ; Judaism ; and Christianity, — Gnosticism was 
an attempt to combine Dualism with Christianity. — The Heart of 
Christy Sears. 

. . . . Clement of Alexandria regarded the Greek philoso- 
phy as also a preparation for Christ While the prin- 
cipal religions of the world are ethnic, or local, Christianity is 
catholic, or universal ; while they are defective, possessing some 
truths and wanting others, Christianity possesses all ; while they 
are stationary, Christianity is progressive. 

The Brahman's decalogue not only commands content, veracity, 
purification, coercion of the senses, resistance to the appetites, 
knowledge of Scripture and of the Supreme Spirit, but abstinence 
from illicit gain, avoidance of wrath, and the return of good for 
evil There are laws against slander, peculation, 



BBAHMANISM AND BUDDHISM. 65 

intemperance, and dealing in ardent spirits; laws punishing iniq- 
uitous judgments, false witness, and unjust imprisonment; laws 
providing for the annulment and revision of unrighteous decrees; 
enforcing the sacredness of pledges and the fulfilment of trusts; 
justly dividing the responsibilities of partners; dealing severely 
with conspiracies to raise prices to the injury of laborers; laws 
which either forbid gambling altogether, or discourage it by regu- 
lative drawbacks ; laws declaring persons reduced to slavery by 
violence free, as well as the slave who has saved his master's life, 
or who purchases his own freedom, etc. — Oriental Religions^ 
yolmson. 

Buddhism accepts the doctrine of the three worlds, — the eternal 
world of absolute being ; the celestial world of the gods, Brahma, 
Indra, Vischnu, Siva; and the finite world, consisting of individ- 
ual souls, and the laws of nature ; only, it says of the world of 

absolute beings, Nirvana, we know nothing It is, 

therefore, to us as nothing. The celestial world, that of the gods, 
is even of less moment to us. What we know are the everlasting 
laws of nature, by obedience to which we rise, disobeying which 
we fall, by perfect obedience to which we shall at last obtain 
Nirvana and rest forever. 

Buddhism is the Protestantism of the East Deeper 

and more essential relations connect Brahmanism with the Rom- 
ish church, and the Buddhist system v/ith Protestantism. The 
Roman Catholic church and Brahmanism place the essence of 
religion in sacrifices. . . . But Protestantism and Buddhism 

save the soul by teaching In the church of Rome the 

sermon is subordinate to the mass ; in Protestantism and in Bud- 
dhism sermons are the main instruments by which souls are saved. 
Brahmanism is a system of inflexible caste ; the priestly caste is 
made distinct and supreme; and in Romanism the priesthood 
almost constitutes the church. In Buddhism and Protestantism 
the laity regain their rights The fundamental doc- 
trine and central idea of Buddhism is personal salvation of the 
soul by personal acts of faith and obedience. 

Therefore, notwithstanding the external resemblance of Bud- 
dhist rites and ceremonies to those of the Roman Catholic church, 
the internal resemblance is to Protestantisni. Buddhism -in Asio, 

F 



66 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

like Protestantism in Europe, is a revolt of nature against spirit, 
of humanity against caste, of individual freedom against the des- 
potism of an order of salvation by faith, against salvation by sac- 
raments. And, as all results are apt to go too far, so it has been 
with Buddhism. 

The world is empty ; the heart is dead, surely ; Nihilism arrives 
sooner or later; God is nothing; death is nothing; eternity is 
nothing. Hence, the profound sadness of Buddhism. To its eye 
all existence is evil, and the only hope is to escape from time into 
eternity, — or into nothing, — as you may choose to interpret Nir- 
vana Though heaven is a blank, hell is a very 

solid reality. It is present and future too. Everything in the 
thousand hells of Buddhism is painted as vividly as in the hell of 
Dante, — God has disappeared from the universe, and in his place 
is only the inexorable law which grinds on forever. It punishes 
and rewards, but has no love in it. It is only dead, cold, cruel, 
unrelenting law. 

The doctrine of the Brahmans is divine absorption ; that of the 
Buddhists, human development. In the Brahmanical system, 
God is everything, and man nothing. In the Buddhist, man is 
everything, and God nothing. Here is its atheism, that it makes 
so much of man as to forget God. It is perhaps " without God in 
the world," but it does not deny Him. 

While in Brahmanism absolute spirit is the only reality, and 
this world is an illusion, the Buddhists know only this world, and 
the eternal world is so entirely unknown as to be equivalent to 
nullity. 

Brahmanism, like the Church of Rome, established a system of 
sacramental salvation in the hands of a sacred order. Buddhism, 
like Protestantism, revolted, and established a doctrine of indi- 
vidual salvation based on personal character. 

Brahmanism loves God, but not man; it has piety, but not 
humanity. Buddhism loves man, but not God ; it has humanity, 
but not piety. ... in Buddhism man struggles upward to find 
God, while in Christianity, God comes down to find man. . . . 
Buddhism is a doctrine of works, and Christianity of grace. 

. . . Christianity touches Buddhism at all its good points, in 
all its truths. It accepts the Buddhistic doctrine of rewards and 



BRAHMANISM AND BUDDHISM. 67 

punishments, of law, progress, self-denial, self-control, humanity, 
charity, equality of man, and pity for human sorrow ; to all this it 
adds; it fills up the dreary void of Buddhism with a living God; 
with a life of God in man's soul, a heaven here as well as hereafter. 

The one infallible diagnostic of Buddhism is a belief in the infi- 
nite capacity of the human intellect. The name of Buddha means 

the Intelligent One, or the One who is wide awake 

Finally, Brahmanism and the Roman Catholic church are inore 
religious; Buddhism and Protestant Christianity, more moral. — 
Condensed from darkens Ten Great Religions. 

Brahmanism is all center. God is everything, man and nature 
nothing, and belong to the world of illusion. God is the Alpha, 
but never the Omega. Buddhism is all circumference. It aflirms 
nature and humanity, but God is lost from both Bud- 
dhism was only a prophecy and preparation for that coming which 
should give it center as well as circumference, and fill its painful 
chasm with divine reality. Its morality, sweet and pure as it is, 
has nothing behind it, and so lacks any completion froin the divine 
energy ; and, though numbering nearly one-third of the human 
race among its votaries, it has never organized any form of society 
which is really progressive. — The Heart of Christy Sears. 

With respect to Boodhism, Malcom admits : " Its doctrines and 
practical piety bear a strong resemblance to those of Holy Script- 
ure. There is scarcely a principle or precept in the Bedagat which 
is not found in the Bible. Did the people but act up to its princi- 
ples of peace and love, oppression and injury would be known no 
more within their borders. Its deeds of merit are in all cases 
either really beneficial to mankind, or harmless. It has no iny- 
thology of obscene and ferocious deities ; no sanguinary or impure 
observances ; no self-inflicted tortures ; no tyrannizing priesthood ; 
no confounding of right and wrong, by making certain iniquities 
laudable in worship. In its moral code, its descriptions of the 
purity and peace of the first ages, of the shortening of man's life 
because of his sins, etc., it seems to have followed genuine tradi- 
tions." — Malconi's Travels. 

Buddhism put spiritual brotherhood in place of hereditary 
priesthood; personal merit in place of distinctions of birth; hu- 
man intelligence in place of authoritative Vedas ; the self-perfected 



68 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

sage in place of the gods of the old theology ; morality in place 
of ritualism; a popular doctrine of righteousness in place of 
scholasticism ; a monastic rule in place of isolated anchoret life ; 
and a cosmopolitan spirit in place of the old national exclusive- 
ness. — Koep^pen. 

The ten commandments of Buddha are : 

First— i:\\OM Shalt not kill. 

Second — Thou shalt not take for thyself what belongs to another. 

Third — Thou shalt not break the laws of chastity. 

JFourtli — Thou shalt not lie. 

Fifth — Thou shalt not slander. 

Sixth — Thou shalt not speak of injuries. 

Seventh — Thou shalt not excite quarrels. 

Eighth — Thou shalt not hate. 

Ninth — Have faith in holy writings. 

Tenth — Believe in immortality. 

Buddhism forbids the taking of life from even the humblest 
animal in creation; it prohibits falsehood, dishonesty, intemper- 
ance, and incontinence ; . . . . every conceivable virtue and 
excellence are simultaneously enjoined, — the forgiveness of inju- 
ries, the practice of charity, reverence of virtue, the cherishing of 
learning; submission to discipline, veneration for parents, the care 
of one's family, a sinless vocation, contentment and gratitude, 
subjection to reproof, moderation in prosperity, submission under 
affliction, and cheerfulness at all tiines It is the Prot- 
estantism of Oriental religion, — the religion of intelligence, not 
of sentiment, — one which seeks abstractions rather than concre- 
tions, morality, rather than dogma. — Origin of Religions Belief 
S. B, Gould. 

Buddhism and Christianity are indeed the two opposite poles 
with regard to the most essential points of religion ; Buddhism 
ignoring all feeling of dependence on a higher power, and there- 
fore denying the very existence of a Supreine Deity ; Christianity^ 
resting entirely on a belief in God as the Father, in the Son of 
Man as the Son of God, and, making us all children of God by 
faith in His Son. Yet, between the language of Buddha and his 
disciples, and the language of Christ and His apostles, there are 
strange coincidences. Even some of the Buddhist legends and 



BUDDHISM, MOHAMMEDANISM, CHRISTIANITY. 69 

parables sound as if taken from the New Testament, though we 
know that many of them existed before the beginning of the 
Christian era. 

If Nirvana is the highest aim and ]ast reward 

of the soul {i. e.y utter extinction) — a bridge from the finite to the 
infinite, but a trap-bridge, hurling man into the abyss at the very 
moment Avhen he thought he had arrived at the stronghold of the 
Eternal, .... it represented the entrance of the soul into 
rest, a subduing of all wishes and desires, indiiFerence to joy and 
pain, to good and evil, an absorption of the soul in itself, and a 
freedom from the circle of existences, from birth to death, and 
from death to a new birth. 

The Catholic Vicar of Ava and Pegu says : " There are many 
moral precepts equally commanded and enforced in common by 
both creeds. It will not be deemed rash to assert, that most of the 
moral truths, prescribed by the Gospel, are to be met with in the 

Buddhistic Scriptures It may be said in favor of 

Buddhism, that no philosophico-religious system has ever upheld, 
to an equal degree, the notions of a Savior and Deliverer, and the 
necessity of His mission, for procuring the salvation of man in a 
Buddhist sense." — Max MuUer. 

Mohammedanism is the Unitarianism of the East. It was a 
new assertion of the simple unity of God, against polytheism and 

against idolatry Islam does for the nations just what 

Judaism did, — teaches the Divine vvi\\\.j .—Clarke^ Ten Religions. 

I cannot forget, that Mohammedanism, despite its errors and its 
deeds of violence, enthrones, this day, the idea, — more than the 
idea, the genuine sentiment of the unity of God, over one hun- 
dred millions of my kind. — Father Hyacinthe. 

There is in the lives of average Mohammedans, from whatever 
causes, less of self-indulgence, less of the mad race for wealth, 
less of servility, than is to be found in the lives of average Chris- 
tians.— i?. B. Smith. 

The Mahometan was right, that there is something in the world 
which we are not to tolerate, which we are sent into it to exter- 
minate. First of all, let us seek that we may be freed from it 
ourselves; but let us be taught by the Mussulman that we shall 
not compass this end unless we believe, and act upon the belief, 



70 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

that every man, and every nation, exists for the purpose of chasing 
falsehood and evil out of God's universe. — F. D. Maurice. 

There is more of truth in the Egyptian reverence for animal 
individuality, than in the unfeeling indifference to the welfare of 
these poor relations which Christians often display. When Jesus 
said, that " not a sparrow falls to the ground without your Father," 
He showed that all these creatures were under the protection of 
their Maker. It may be foolish to worship animals, but it is still 
more foolish to despise them. 

The religion of Egypt is the physical reaction from Brahmanism. 
Instead of the worship of abstract Deity, it gives us the most con- 
crete divinity,wholly incarnated in space and time. Instead of ab- 
stract contemplation, it gives us ceremonial v/orship. — Clarke's Ten 
Religions. 

The Egyptians are of all men .most attentive to the worship of 
the gods. — Heroditus. 

Nuk-pu-Nuk (" I am He who I am") and Neith ("I come from 
Myself") are two of the more remarkable descriptive titles given 
to the Deity. 

The Egyptians frequently spoke of God as their Father, and of 
themselves as sons beloved of their Father. — Evolutio7i aiid Chris- 
tiaiiity^ J. F, Torke. 

None of the Christian virtues is forgotten in the Egyptian code 
of morality ; piety, charity, gentleness, self-command in word and 
action, chastity, the protection of the weak, benevolence towards the 
humble, deference to superiors, respect for property in its minutest 

details ; all is expressed here, and in extremely good 

language. 

The maxims of Ptahhotep, — written centuries before Moses 
was born, inculcate the study of wisdom, the duty to parents and 
superiors, respect for property, the advantages of charitableness, 
peaceableness, and content, — of liberality, humility, chastity, and 
sobriet}^; of truthfulness and justice; and they show the wicked- 
ness and folly of disobedience, strife, arrogance, and pride, of 
slothfulness, intemperance, unchastity, and other vices. 

It is certain, that at least three thousand years before Christ, — 
probably more than two thousand years before Exodus was writ- 
ten, there was in Egypt a powerful and elaborately organized 



THE RELIGION OF THE EGYPTIANS. 71 

monarchy, enjoying a material civilization in many respects not 
inferior to European in the last century. 

The blocks of the pyramids bear quarry marks exhibiting the 
decimal notation, and are dated by the months of the calendar 
which was in use down to the latest times. 

The Egyptian deities were innumerable. . . . Every town 
and village had its local patrons. 'Every month of the year, every 
day of the month, every hour of the day, and of the night, had 
its presiding divinity. 

Many very eminent scholars maintain, that the Egyptian relig- 
ion was essentially inonotheistic, and that the multiplicity of gods 
is only due to the personification of the attributes, characters and 
offices of the Supreme God. 

It is more than five thousand years since, in the valley of the 
Nile, the hymn began to the Unity of God, and the immortality of 
the soul, and we find Egypt in the last ages arrived at the most un- 
bridled Polytheism. 

The disembodied personality of each individual was, therefore, 
supposed by the Egyptians to be provided with a material form 
and substance. The soul had a body of its own, and could eat 
and drink. 

There is probably not a Hebrew manuscript of the Old Testa- 
ment which is a thousand years old. The oldest existing Sanskrit 
manuscripts were written only a few centuries ago. Some of our 
Egyptian papyri are not less than four thousand years old — have 
been preserved by being kept from the air and damp in a perfectly 
dry climate, hermetically sealed in earthern or wooden vessels, or 
under mummy coverings, sometimes at a depth of ninety feet with- 
in the living rock, and still further protected by dry sands of the 
desert. 

A sense of the Eternal and Infinite, Holy and Good, governing 
the world, and upon which we are dependent, of Right and 
Wrong, of Holiness and Virtue, of Immortality and Retribution, 
— such were the elements of Egyptian religion. — Renouf. 

There is a papyrus in the Imperial library at Paris, which M. 
Chabas considers the oldest book in the world. It is an autograph 
manuscript, written B. C. 2200, or four thousand years ago, by 
one who calls himself the son of a king. It contains practical 



72 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

philosophy, Uke that of Solomon in his Proverbs. — Gillette from 
Bunsen. 

But, in the spirit world, there were judges also. The life of the 
dead was there to be subjected to the severest scrutiny. All man- 
kind must be tried before Osiris by one and the same standard. 
The souls of all are immortal, but " those only which have been 
tried and purified are made blessed ; for they alone have attained 
the good of their career, which is the life of blessedness in God." 
—Prof E. H. Gillett. 

According to the " Ritual of the Egyptian Dead," the soul, 
when it descended with the setting sun to Amenti, the hidden land 
beyond the western hills, had to recite, before it was weighed in 
the hall of justice, the sins into which it had not fallen, and the 
good deeds it had wrought, declaring, in words which remind us 
of those said to have been used by Jesus in His account of a last 
judgment, " I have fed the hungry, clothed the naked," etc., and, 
if thus justified, was clad in a white robe and admitted to the 
heavenly places. — Edivard Clodd. 

We constantly find inscriptions on the tombs such as the fol- 
lowing : " I honored my father and my mother ; I loved my 
brothers. I taught little children. I took care of orphans as 
though they had been my own children." In letters of excellent 
advice addressed by an old man of no years of age to a young 
friend — which form the most ancient book in the world, dating 
3000 B. C. — he says : " The obedience of a docile son is a bless- 
ing. God loves obedience. Disobedience is hated by God. The 

obedience of a son maketh glad the heart of his father 

A son teachable in God's service will be happy in consequence of 
his obedience, he will grow to be old, he will find favor." This is 
the earliest appearance of the " first commandment with promise" 
{Eph, vi: 2\ the obedience to God and man which was the " essence 
of Hebraism." The moral code of the Egyptians consisted of 
forty-two commandments or heads under which all sins might be 
classed. This code was the ideal placed before men on earth ; it 
was the standard of perfection according to which they would be 
judged in heaven. Some of them are of local interest only, but 
most — belong to the eternal laws of right and wrong written on 
the tables of the heart. Men were taught from childhood, as 



RELIGION OF EGYPTIANS, PERSIANS, CONFUCIUS. 73 

children are nowadays taught their catechism, that they must 
appear in the presence of the Divine Judge and say : " I have not 
privily done evil to my neighbors. I have not afflicted any, nor 
caused any to weep. I have not told lies. I have not done any 
wicked thing. I have not done what is hateful to the gods. I 
have not calumniated the slave to his master. I have not been 
idle. I have not stolen. I have not committed adultery. I have 
not committed murder." 

But their commandments were positive as well as negative. 
On the tombs we find the common formula : " I have given bread 
to the hungry, water to the thirsty, clothes to the naked, shelter 
to the stranger." In the lamentations at funerals, the mourners 
see the deceased entering the presence of the Divine Judge, and 
they chant the words : " There is no fault in him. No answer 
riseth up against him. In the truth he liveth, with the truth he 
nourishes himself. The gods are satisfied with all that he hath 

done He succored the afflicted, he gave bread to the 

hungry, drink to the thirsty, clothes to the naked; he sheltered 
the outcast, his doors were open to the stranger, he was a father 
to the fatherless." 

Gratefully does a man acknowledge in his autobiography (4000 
B. C.) : " Wandering I wandered and was hungry, bread was set 
before me; I fled from the land naked, there was given me fine 
linen." It is a glory to a man that " the poor shall make their 
moan at the door of his tomb." An inscription on a tomb at 
Beni-Hassan, written about 2500 B. C, reads : " I have not op- 
pressed any widow. No prisoner languished in my days. No 
one died of hunger. When there were years of famine I had my 
fields plowed. I gave food to the inhabitants, so that there was 
no hungry person. I gave the widow equal portions with the 
married. I did not prefer the rich to the poor." 

On a wall of the temple of Karnak, there is sculptured the 
earliest known extraditionary treaty. It is between Rameses II. 
and a Khetan prince. The last clause provides that political fugi- 
tives are to be sent back, with the following humane provision for 
their personal safety : " Whoever shall be delivered up, himself, 
his wives, his children, let him not be smitten to the death ; more- 
over, let him not suffer in the eyes, in the mouth, in the feet; 



74 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

moreover, let not any crime be set up against him." This treaty 
was engraven for the Khetan prince on a silver tablet. 

In a volume of maxims we read : " Maltreat not an inferior. 
Let your wife find in j^ou her protector ; maltreat her not. Save 
not thine OAvn life at the cost of another." On the tomb of a man 
at El-Kalb (4000 B. C.) it is recorded that he " never left home 
w^ith anger in his heart." — Fortniglitly Review. 

It must be confessed, that this infinite substance (first Being 
named "Time Without Bounds" in the writings of Zoroaster) 
seems rather a metaphysical abstraction of mind than a real object 
endowed with self-consciousness, or possessed of moral perfec- 
tions. From either the blind or the intelligent operation of this 
infinite time, which bears but too near an aflSnity with the chaos 
of the Greeks, two secondary but active principles were from all 
eternity produced. These were Ormuzd and Ahriman. The wise 
benevolence of Ormuzd formed man capable of virtue, and pro- 
vided abundantly for his happiness ; but the malice of Ahriman 
has long since pierced Ormuzd's ^^^.^ or violated the harmony of 
his works; hence the presence of good and evil. Ahriman was 
represented by darkness, and Ormuzd by light; hence they wor- 
shiped light. Says Herodotus : " They adore the sun, the moon, 
earth, fire, water, and winds, which may be termed their original 
deities. They so venerated the rivers, that no one was allowed to 
spit in them, or wash his hands in their waves." 

" He who sows the ground with diligence and care," saj s the 
Zendavesta, " acquires a greater stock of religious merit than he 
could gain by the repetition of ten thousand prayers." — Gibboji. 

The primeval religion of the Persians consisted in a firm belief 
in one Supreme God, who made the world by His power, and 
governed it by His providence; in a pious fear, love, and adoration 
of Him ; in a reverence for parents and aged persons ; in a frater- 
nal affection for all mankind ; and in a compassionate tenderness 
towards the brute creation. — Kino's Daily Bible Illustrations. 

" I worship and adore," says Zoroaster, " the Creator of all 
things, Ahura-Mazda, full of light." He is elsewhere spoken of 
as "the greatest ruler, might}^ wise creator, supporter, refuge, 
completer of good works, Avho always was, always is, and always 
will be, whose wisdom of wisdoms, communicated to men, effects 



CHRISTIANITY — THE PLEROMA OF ALL RELIGIONS. 75 

freedom from Hell for the soul at the bridge, and leads it over to 
that Paradise," etc All good do I accept at thj com- 
mand, O God, and think, speak, and do it. I believe in the pure 
lav^s ; by every good v^ork seek I forgiveness for all sins. I praise 
all good thoughts, words, and works. I curse all evil. I repent 
of the sins which can lay hold on the character of men, or which 
have laid hold of my character, small and great. Pardon, O Lord. 
. . . . O Mazda, when on earth our spirit is hardly pressed in 
the fight ; come thou to our aid. The pious hearts dost thou give 
to inherit the earth, and dost punish those who are void of truth 

and false to their proinise The destiny of the soul is 

distinct from that of the body. The demons might obtain posses- 
sion of the mortal form, but the powers of evil could have no 
hold of the soul — if during life it had been a sincere worshiper of 
Mazda, abhorring evil and striving after truth and purity. . . . 
The wicked are dragged to the bridge Chinevat by the Daevas. 
Here Ormuzd holds a tribunal, and decides the doom of souls. 
The good pass the bridge to the mansions of the blessed — the 
wicked fall over into the gulf Duzahk, where they are tormented 

by the Daevas The Zoroastrians were anti-idolaters, 

devout believers in the immortality of the soul, and a conscious 
future existence. 

The ethical system of Confucius, born in 551 B. C, which he 
inculcated by precept and example, will bear comparison with any- 
thing at that time discoverable in the heathen world. — Gillett 

To believe in things not seen, to worship a power above visible na- 
ture, to look forward to an unknown future, this is natural to man. 

Christianity has assimilated the essential ideas of the religions 
of Persia, Judea, Egypt, Greece, Rome, and Scandinavia; and 
each of these religions, in turn, disappeared as it was absorbed by 

this powerful absorbent If Christianity can unite the 

races of men in one family, one kingdom of heaven, — then, it is 
fitted to be, and will become the universal religion. — Clarice's Ten 
Religions, 

Of the whole population of the w^orld, 31.2 per cent, are Bud- 
dhists, 13.4 per cent. Brahmanists, 15.7 per cent. Mohammedans, 
8.7 per cent, nondescript Heathens, 30.7 per cent. Christians, 0.3 
per cent. Jews. — Chifsfrom a German Workshop,, Midler. 



76 THE LIGHT OF LII^E. 

Other . . . religions have never stood the tests of Chris- 
tianity. . . That is the great difference in calculating whether 
the influence of Christ is likely now to be destroyed. They perish 
before the influences which Christianity resists and surmounts; 
cradled in barbarism, nurtured by local and national genius, they 
are hybrids of the religious instinct and poetic fancy, and like other 
hybrids, they cannot propagate. Military conquest, political rev- 
olution, shatter them to pieces ; they do not pass from race to race, 
nor emigrate from clime to clime. What is still more fatal to 
them is advancing science ; these things of darkness are at once 
transfixed by the shafts of light ; the mythologies of Greece and 
Rome were laughed at long before they were finally extinguished ; 
a score of mythologies more have perished since that day ; at this 
moment Brahma and Vishnu are quaking on their precarious 
thrones ; and old Buddha lies sprawling on the rivers of China. — 
Henry Rogers, 

The Divine Incarnation, which reveals God, not only as the 
Beginning but the Ultimatum, is a truth towards which all the 
old religions prophesy out of the deepest wants of human nature ; 
so, again, the modern religions which lead the world's progress, 
date from it, and down from it, their completion of life and energy. 
It is the focal center of the world's history, and unifies the w^hole. 

We want God, not alone in our darkened intuitions, but from 
the cloven heavens. Other religions abound in both precept and 
example. There have been good men, thank God, under all forms 
of faith and codes of morals, that have anticipated some of the 
divine sayings of the Sermon on the Mount 

Buddhism, Parseeism, and Judaism, as the Essenes received it, 
had their lofty ideas of moral perfection, and their strivings after 
it. God has never been without a witness, for the Word has ever 
knocked at the door of the human heart, and sought to enlighten 
every man that cometh into the world. But, in the Lord Jesus 
Christ, the heavens indeed are cloven, and not only our ideals of 
perfection are exalted and purified, but God is yielded to us with 
transforming power to cleanse from evil, to energize, to create 
anew, to bring the ideals which He gives, mOre rapidly to their 
realization, and to glorify Himself in a human nature redeemed 
and sanctified. — The Heart of Christy Sears, 



CHAPTER 11. 



SOBIPTURES — GOD INSPIRED. 

The words of the Lord are pure words, as silver tried in a fur- 
nace of fire purified seven times. — Ps, xii: 6. 

From childhood thou hast known the sacred writings, which 
are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is 
in Christ Jesus. Every Scripture — God-inspired, is indeed profit- 
able for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for culture by right- 
eousness. — // Tim. in: /j, j6. 

The Bible, as the Book of books, is as the sun in 
the center of all other religious records, — the kings of 
the Chinese, the Vedas of India, the Zendavesta of the 
Persians, the Eddas of the Germans, the Jewish Tal- 
mud, and the Mohammedan Koran; judging all that 
is hostile in them, reconciling and bringing into lib- 
erty whatever elements of truth they may contain. — 
Lange, Gen. Introd. to the O. T., quoted by Wythe. 

The Bible is not such a book as man would have 
made, if he could; or could have made, if he would. 
— Henry Rogers. 

It is the spirit of the Bible, and not the detached 
words and sentences, that is infallible and absolute. 
. . . . The absolute infallibility of the inspired 
writers, in matters altogether foreign to the objects 
and purposes of their inspiration, is no part of my 
creed. — Coleridge. 



78 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

It is the business of the theologian to study every 
word of Scripture, not merely by grammar and logic, 
but in its relations to the life of the writer, and the 
actual circumstances in which God's Word came to 
him. 

A Bible which shall enable us to follow the inner 
life of the course of Revelation, must contain, not 
only words of grace and answers of faith, but as much 
of the ordinary history, the every-day life, and the 
current thoughts of the people to whom the revelation 
came, as will enable us to enter into their circum- 
stances, and receive the Word as they received it. 

To try to suppress the human side of the Bible, in 
the interests of the purity of the Divine Word, is as 
great folly as to think that a father's talk with his 
child can be best reported by leaving out everything 
what the child said, thought, and felt. 

The language which is called Hebrew in the New 
Testament, was a dialect as unlike to the Hebrew of 
the Bible as German is to English — a different lan- 
guage, although a kindred one. The language is called 
Hebrew because it was spoken by the Hebrews, just 
as the Spanish Jews in Constantinople at the present 
day call their Spanish jargon Hebrew. It was a kind 
of Syriac or Aramaic, which the Jews had gradually 
learned in place of Hebrew, after their return from 
captivity, when they found themselves a small handful 
living in the midst of nations who spoke Aramaic, and 
with whom they had constant dealings. In those days 
Aramaic was the language of business and govern- 
ment, just as English is in the Highlands of Scotland, 
and so the Jews forgot their own tongue, and learned 



SCRIPTURES — GOD INSPIRED. 79 

Aramaic, as the Scottish Celts are now forgetting 
Gaelic for English. This process had already gone on 
to a great extent before the latest books of the Old 
Testament were completed. 

The letters proper are the consonants, and the vowels 
are indicated by small marks placed above or below 
the line of the consonants. These small marks did 
not exist in the time of Christ, or even four hundred 
years after His time, — at the time of Jerome. Before 
this invention, the proper pronunciation of each diffi- 
cult word had to be acquired from a master. 

The copyists did not proceed exactly like law clerks 
copying a deed. They made additions from parallel 
passages, they wrote things upon the margin which 
afterward got into the text; and when copying from a 
blotted page they sometimes had to make a guess at a 
word. 

In these times, Hebrew books were costly and cum- 
brous, written on huge rolls of leather, not even on 
the later and more convenient parchment. Copies, 
therefore, were very numerous, and being much han- 
dled, were apt to get worn and indistinct. For not 
only was leather an indifferent surface to write on, 
but the ink was of that kind that could be washed off, 
a prejudice existing against the use of a mordant. 
No single copy, therefore, was likely to remain long 
in good readable condition throughout, . . . diffi- 
cult to get copies to collate. Antiochus Epiphanes 
caused all MSS. of the Law, and seemingly of other 
sacred books, to be torn up and burnt, and made it a 
capital offense to possess a Pentateuch. 

Jewish scholars before Christ had no grammar and 



80 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

no dictionary; all their knowledge of the language 
was acquired by oral teaching; their exegesis of diflSi- 
cult passages was necessarily traditional. . . When 
the Septuagint was composed, before the middle of 
the third century B. C, the Hebrew language was 
either dead or dying, and the mother tongue of the 
translators was either Greek or Aramaic. 

Many of the Hebrew books have gone through sev- 
eral redactions, — or, in other words, have been edited 
and re-edited in different ages, receiving some addi- 
tion or modification at the hand of each editor. . . . 
The man who had bought or copied a book held it to 
be his own for every purpose. — Condensed from Prof. 
W. B, Smith, 

Are not the unlearned wholly unacquainted with those 
Keys of Solution, (as they are called) which the learn- 
ed have such frequent recourse to; such as those of a 
transposition of words or clauses, errors of copies, va- 
rious readings, various meanings of the same word, 
punctuation, taking away or adding of the negative 
particle, allusion to customs, consideration of the mat- 
ter in hand, exaggeration, interrogation, parenthesis, 
literal sense, figurative sense, want of exactness in the 
sacred writers, prudence in concealing some things, or 
in complying with some opinions prevailing in their 
times, condescension to Pagans or Jews, using such 
ideas as prevailed in such a religion, prejudication in 
the hearers, answers suitable to their needs, rather 
than to their queries, compendious expressions, phra- 
seology of that time, the author's nation, or native 
country, parallel passages, precepts peculiar to the 
apostles, advices to perfection, censures against cer- 



SCRIPTUBES — GOD INSPIRED. 81 

tain heretics, the circumstances of the subject, the 
scope of the author, what goes before, and what fol- 
lows, the barrenness of the Hebrew tongue, and, con- 
sequently, its ambiguity, its particular idioms, the 
various senses of the same verb in different conjuga- 
tions, the want of certain ways of expression used in 
other tongues, the sublime and metaphysical expres- 
sions most frequent in the Oriental languages, the 
imitation of the Hebrew in LXX. version, and, in the 
original text of the New Testament Greek of the 
synagogue, etc. 

The best way not to be mistaken, is to admit all for 
divine Scripture that tends to the honor of God, and 
the good of man; and nothing which does not. , . . 
And does not St. Paul suppose no Scripture to be 
divinely inspired, but what is profitable for devotion, 
for reproof, for correction, for instruction in right- 
eousness? 

Most of the particular rules laid down in the Gospel 
for our direction, are spoken after such a figurative 
manner, that, except we judge of their meaning, not 
merely by the Letter, but by what the Law of Nature 
antecedently declares to be our duty, they are apt to 
lead us wrong. — Christianity as Old as the Creation. ^ 

Amongst the ancient Church Fathers, although they 
had a general impression of the divinely inspired 
character of Scripture, the opinion that its language 
was human and imperfect was held to be unmistakable; 
that verbal contradictions, nay, contradictions even in 

I. The edition from which we quote, was published anony- 
mously in London, 1730. Its author was Dr. Matthew Tindal. 
Copies of it are rare in this country. 

G 



82 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

matters of fact, were ascribed to it without hesitation. 

What would a Paul say to him whose faith in the 
Son of God would be doubtful, because he did not 
know whether, in Acts xx:28, the correct rendering 
was "the church of God," or "the church of the 
Lord"; or because he could not feel certain whether 
"vinegar," as Matthew says, or "wine mingled with 
myrrh," as Mark says, was offered to the Savior on the 
cross; or, whether Christ healed the blind man on his 
entrance into, or on his departure from Jericho; or, 
whether the passage, John xxi:24, 25, was subjoined 
by John himself, or by a friend of his? To such a 
doubter, I say, what would a Paul answer? He would 
tell him, " Man, thy hour is not yet come" ! . . . . 

The great idea that the disciple of the Lord, in so 
far as his own selfish intent alone is concerned, — sup- 
pressing the slightest tendency to vindictiveness, — 
should seek by kindness to subdue his enemy, remains 
entirely the same, whether Christ uses the example of 
him who, when sued at law, yields up his cloak in 
addition to his coat, as Matthew puts it, or that of him 
who on the highway is robbed of his cloak, and yields 
up his coat also, as Luke puts it. The fact of our 
Lord's resurrection remains equally certain, whether 
he first appeared to these persons or to those. The 
Evangelists have even passed over in entire silence the 
important appearing to the five hundred, of whom 
Paul speaks in I Cor, 15 : 6, 

Augustine declares, that each of the Evangelists 
has written, sometimes more and sometimes less fully, 
as each remembered, and as each had it in his heart; 
and asserts that the words of the Evangelists might 



SCRIPTURES — GOD INSPIRED. 83 

be ever so contradictory, provided only that their 
thoughts were the same. — Tholuck. 

Paul's personal opinions about the facts of which 
he testified bind no man's judgment. . . . No 
prophecy of the Scripture is of -aaay private interpre- 
tation. {II Peter i: 20.) . . . The prophets did 
not always comprehend their own testimony. (J Peter 
i: 10-12.)— Mozley, 

Religion is older than the Bible; the Bible is founded 
on religion, not religion on it; nor is Christianity based 
upon the New Testament; it existed before any part 
of the New Testament was written; apostles and evan- 
gelists did not make it true, but taught it because it 
was true; there was an interval of time before any of 
them wrote, and a still longer ere the canon was 
formed. And if religion existed before and independ- 
ently of the Bible, it may well survive its destruction. 
— Lessing, quoted by B. TV. Mackay. 

Christianity, as a redemptive system, might stand 
on the great facts of the New Testament, if they were 
known as historic only, and the New Testament liter- 
ature were not inspired at all " What is a 

short proof of inspiration," said Frederick the Great to 
his chaplain? "The Jews, your majesty." — Joseph 
Cook. 

Almost everything doubtful, or at least, everything 
transparently erroneous, in our sacred books, might be 
surrendered to-morrow with little, or rather no detri- 
ment to the essentials of the Christian faith. It is 
strangely unreasonable for men to argue that they can- 
not believe, — God ought to be worshiped in spirit and 
truth, unless they are also convinced, that Cyrenius 



84 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

was president of Syria, or, that the Cretans were 
always liars. Nor ought anyone to doubt, whether 
God made sea and land, because it may fairly be ques- 
tioned, how far the poetry in Joshua about the sun 
standing still, or the allegory in Jonah about the whale, 

ought to be interpreted literally We may 

grant to the Romanist, as well as to many Anglicans, 
that the church was before the Bible, as a speaker 
is before his voice ; and that Holy Scripture is not the 
foundation of the Christian faith, so much as its 
creature, its expression, and its embodiment. . . . 
From the conscience of man, and the Holy Spirit of 
God, meeting in the church, the Bible derives its 
origin, its authority, and its power to persuade. — Row- 
land Williams, 

Mark was the interpreter of Peter, and carefully 
recorded all that he retained from him in his memory, 
without binding himself to the chronological order of 
the words and deeds of Christ. — Presbyter Johii, 
quoted by Eusebius, Eccles. Hist, 

All the Gospels originated in the first century. — 
Tischendorf. 

On the whole, I accept the four canonical Gospels 
as authentic. All, in my judgment, date back to the 
first century, and they are, substantially, by the authors 
to whom they are attributed. . . . Baur admitted, 
that Paul's Epistles to the Corinthians, to the Romans, 
and to the Galatians, were genuine, and were written 
before the year 60. . . . There is incontrovertible 
evidence, that even the Gospels had acquired authority 
with the earliest churches as early as A. D. 125. 

^' Up to the present day," says Baur of Strauss, " the 



SCRIPTURES — GOD INSPIRED. 85 

mythical theory has been rejected by every man of 
education." 

"Das ist Nichts," said Corner of Kenan's "Life of 
Jesus." .... 

"As a sect in Biblical criticism," said Tholuck, " the 
Tubingen school has perished." 

The upper date of A. D. 34, and the lower date of 
A. D. 60, established by exact research, are the two 
merciless blades, between which the latest and most 
deftly woven web of doubt is cut in two." — Jos. Cook, 

The verity of the Bible, — sixty-six separate books 
bound in one, — prose and poetry interwoven and com- 
bined, written in at least three different languages, — - 
Hebrew, Chaldean, and Greek, "by legislators, patri- 
archs, prophets, priests, kings, statesmen, physicians, 
shepherds, tax gatherers, tent makers, fishermen,"' 
through a period of fifteen centuries and compassing 
human events for forty centuries, the verity of the 
Bible, as a cosmic and human history, a revelation of 
the personality, spirituality, and the attributes of God, 
with a record of His commands and prohibitions, 
through Him to men, — and through His Son, — Him- 
self manifest in the flesh, will be assumed, as it has 
already been in these presentations, — not its verbal 
infallibility, — save the very words of the Almighty 
Himself, uttered or dictated, — if they have been accu- 
rately transmitted, only the divine thought and emo- 
tion in the human letter, — not the invariable accuracy 
of its present text or versions, — not that its various 
books were, exclusively, the productions of those whose 

I, Young's Concordance. 



86 THE LIGHT OF LIF^. 

names they now bear, — not that, some, if not all the 
historical portions were not compilations of previously 
existing documents, or the substance of oral traditions, 
— as are all histories, ancient or modern, — not that the 
events and the speech in it are presented in their 
chronological order, — not that there is not, frequently, 
a hiatus of time, between events and discourses, as 
tabulated by the evangelic writers, — their productions, 
in some instances, being designed rather as memora- 
hilia, than systematic biography, or consecutive his- 
tory, — a supplement or a complement of preceding nar- 
ratives, — rather than independent histories, — each one 
of the four Gospels having been constructed for a spe- 
cial purpose and for special classes, — not that the 
original authors or subsequent compilers, outside of 
divine guidance, and left to their human perception, 
reason, and memory, necessarily fallible, did not some- 
times lapse into error, as do ordinary narrators, and, 
as is evident, some of them did in personal belief and 
practice: — sanction and approval of human frailty in 
word or act must not be implied by their faithful 
record in the Bible. God is not such an incon- 
stant, changeable, capricious, arbitrary, implacable 
Being, as some of the Old Testament speakers and 
writers have, in accommodation, probably, to the 
weakness of those addressed, represented Him; not 
that there have not been interpolations in — in some 
instances, daring corruptions of, the original text by 
careless or presumptuous scribes, — not that the pres- 
ent Hebrew and Greek texts are perfect transcripts of 
the originals, — the original Hebrew, without punctua- 
tion, accent, breakage of sentence or paragraph, having 



SCRIPTURES — GOD INSPIRED. 87 

been but a short-hand text of assorted consonants, 
without the modern Masoretic vowel-points, so that 
each cluster might have as many meanings or shades 
of interpretation as the number of vowels needed to 
conjoin and to intelligently interpret them: Jesus, 
His apostles and Gospel inditers, as of teii quoted from 
the Septuagint, confessedly an uninspired version, as 
from the original Hebrew or Aramaic, — but that the 
Bible is substantially a true historical record, embody- 
ing the expressions of God's will in human language 
to men, on which, aside from all recognized errors, 
real, apparent, and assumed conflicts of statements, 
all inquiring souls may safely rely for light, strength, 
hope and comfort, with respect to the weighty facts 
and truths contained therein. For its precise truth, 
subtlety, or mystery of meaning, it must always be 
searched. Search, scrutiny, involve analysis, compar- 
ison, discrimination. 

The Bible was inspired; yes, it may be correctly so 
averred; yet not any evident and demonstrated error 
therein, through ignorance in transcription or trans- 
lation; nor does its candid record of any unrighteous- 
ness or immoral conduct imply sanction or approval; 
nor must the human element be taken for the divine. 
Doubtless there was a providential direction and 
superintendence in the preparation, arrangement, and 
preservation of the historic portions. Doubtless the 
poetical and devotional portions were divinely incited 
and spiritually elevated. Doubtless there was a divine 
conveyance, into the minds of the human recipients, 
of divine commands, prohibitions, and statements. It 
is not improbable, but very probable, and not at all 



88 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

irrational, that on Sinai, at the Savior's baptism, and 
on the Mount of Transfiguration, and on other mem- 
orable occasions, God did audibly speak words, in 
human dialect, using them for the conveyance of 
His will to men. 

Pure thoughts and emotions are engendered in the 
soul by God. Their attempted externalization in vocal 
or written language, may or may not have been exclu- 
sively under divine dictation. Language has ever 
proved inadequate for their ample and subtle ex- 
pression. 

Eevelation is the unveiling of previously unknown 
or dimly discerned Truth. Inspiration is the spirit- 
ual quickening and illumination of minds and hearts 
for the reception of such truth. Divine dictation is 
utterance by God, most commonly through the mind 
and heart of a human recipient. These acts, states, 
or designating terms, are, therefore, not equivalent to 
each other. The inspiration of the human is not nec- 
essarily the same or the equivalent of divine dictation. 
It is only the effect human of a cause divine. 

"Eevelation, in the Christian sense, indicates that 
act of Divine power by which God presents the reali- 
ties of the spiritual world immediately to the human 
mind; while inspiration denotes that especial influence 
wrought upon the faculties of the subject, by virtue 
of which he is able to grasp these realities in their 
perfect fullness and integrity." 

"Inspiration does not imply anything generically new 
in the actual processes of the human mind; it does not 
involve any form of intelligence essentially different 
from what we already possess; it indicates, rather, the 



SCRIPTURES — GOD INSPIRED. 89 

eleyation of the religions consciousness, and with it, 
of conrse, the power of spiritual vision, to a degree 
of intensity peculiar to the individuals thus highly fa- 
vored by God." ' What Moses vocally said in the name 
of Jehovah, doubtless was the vocal, literal repetition 
or equivalent of what the Most High — articulated or 
not, spiritually declared in and through him. What 
Moses wrote, save on such extraordinary occasions as 
on Sinai, may, or may not have been, the ipsissima 
verba, which God, humanly, or in fact, is represented 
as having "spoke." 

The Bible still continues to be the grand external 
authority and appeal on all questions involving the 
spiritual and eternal weal of men. It is the last 
refuge external for an inquisitive, perplexed soul. It 
is only so, by search, analysis, and comparison, and 
through the illumination of the Spirit. Its letter, as 
it has been transmitted, is the fossil of the Revelation 
that made it vivific. Some of its original sense, — of 
its definiteness and precision, — of its flavor, may 
have been lost in the transmission to modern vernac- 
ulars. Some of that truth may not have been for 
universal, but for mere local and temporary applica- 
tion. There are other Books of God, not in arbitrary 
glyphics of thought, truth, fact, sentiment, but en- 
graven by the Divine Finger on the universe, and the 
tablets of the human heart, ^ and read in human his- 
tory, and Providential unfolding; and there is, and 
will ever be, an increasing development in the minds 

1. Morell, Philosophy of Religion. 

2. Science is as surely a revelation of God as the Gospel, — a 
revelation to reason of things mundane, as the Gospel is a reve- 



90 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

and hearts of believers. Thus the human race, regen- 
erated, sanctified, spiritualized, ascends. 

Successive assaults upon the origin, authenticity, 
authorship, times of creation, validity, and authority 
of the various books of the Bible, — in their sphere 
and limitations, from the days of Celsus, have ever 
proved ineffectual. The discomfiture of the last, 
known as the Tubingen School, has not been less 
overwhelming. 

Sic fatus senior^ telumque imbelle sine ictu 
Conjecit ; 

There is nothing new under the sun. Why do skep- 
tics rage, and unbelievers imagine a vain thing? He 
that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall 
have them in derision. Heaven and earth wdll pass 
away, but not an iota of truth. ' 

But, hast thou considered, O beleaguered soul, with 

lation to faith of things super-mundane. They can never conflict. 
—F. H. Hedge, 
» Sir David Brev^ster, and over one hundred and fifty of the prin- 
cipal scientific men of Great Britain, signed a declaration of their 
belief in the agreement of Science and Revelation, — saying: 
" We conceive that it is impossible for the Word of God as writ- 
ten in the Book of Nature, and God's Word written in Holy 
Scripture, to contradict one another, however much they may 
appear to difier, and confidently believe that a time will come 
when the two records will be seen to agree in every particular." — 
Earnest Wordsy etc,^ Mrs. H. V. Reed. 

I. Nubecula est; transibit. "It is a little cloud; it will pass 
away." This was said by Athanasius of Julian the apostate, who, 
after a short reign of active hostility to Christianity, perished 
with a confession of utter failure. — S chaff. 



SCBIPTUKES — GOD INSPIRED. 91 

all thy "light from Nature," what this Terrestrial 
would be without these Scriptures — God-inspired? 
What spiritual darkness would envelop thee on thy 
journey, — luhitherivard and to lohcd? and with what 
white-faced terror, speechless apprehension, — without 
illuminating grace, thou wouldst come at last to the 
edge of that Abyss of Darkness, which may come to 
be— to thy soul, the Blackness of Darkness forever!" 
Existence, shall it be? or annihilation? or an incom- 
prehended Nirvana? If continuous life spiritual, shall 
it be mingled or unmingled joy, or sorrow? 

Whence, without this Apocalypse, shall come re- 
sponse or light? and, what hope is there for thee in 
the eternal Future? 

Whether, existence is continuous forever when phys- 
ical, psychical death intervenes; whether, there is a 
possibility or probability of perdition to the godless, 
impenitent, and incorrigible, — and, in the Eternal Fu- 
ture, through the inherent logical sequences of each sin, 
or its statutory penalties, — whether, salvation is possi- 
ble to those who have lived without God, and on what 
conditions, — Who, or What is the saving Way, the 
Truth and the Life — if there be one, — whether, the 
life beyond will be one of graded bliss or sorrow, 
according to antecedent life in Time — in one and the 
same common place or state : — (the representative Dives 
in Hades beholds Abraham and Lazarus — his spirit- 
ual antipodes, though "afar off," — far off, it is appre- 
hended, more as to state than to place, with memory 
in full exercise, — consciousness in the fullest realiza- 
tion, — sensibilities and anxieties for the weal of kin- 
dred quickened to the intensest, — he beseeches for the 



92 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

sending o£ Lazarus as a messenger of the solemnest 
and most impressive warning to his five brethren on 
the earth, is heard, and responds) — whether Heaven 
and Gehenna are dissevered or blended locally, — spir- 
itually, ' — whether each, as "places," from a common 
center or each extreme, will pass, crescendo — diminu- 
endo, from one to the other; or, whether as "states," 
they are positively so antipodal to each other in char- 
acter and condition, that there is, and of necessity 
must be between them, a limitless, fathomless, impas- 
sable " chasma mega," — so that, they who would pass 
from one to the other, cannot! Luke xvi: 26. ^ 

1. For as in this world there is every possible gradation of vir- 
tue and of vice, which run into each other by the most imper- 
ceptible degrees, and are often only distinguishable by the minutest 
shade — so in the next world there must be every possible grada- 
tion of reward and punishment. — Creed of Chr{ste7idom^ Greg, 

2. See notes, " Illustrative and Suggestive." 



ILLUSTRATIVE AND SUGGESTIVE. 



Slabs of stones unearthed with hieroglyphic inscriptions, and 
disinterred manuscripts, from time to time, coniirm the historic 
statements of the Bible. The following, presumed to be reliable, 
are am.ong the most recent confirmations : 

During a recent visit to Egypt, Prof. Owen, an English savant, 
discovered the tables of the old Egyptian law. These tables con- 
tain thirty commandments, and among the thirty are seven of the 
ten commandments of the old Mosaic Decalogue. 

A recent exploring party among the pyramids, discovered in 
the rocky depths beyond the "king's chamber" a manuscript, 
which was sealed up in a cavity of rock. On being brought to 
Europe and translated, it was found to be almost identical with 
the five books of Moses. 

On the line of the march of the Israelites from the Red Sea 
M. Lottin de Laval, in February, 1851, — near the Wells of Moses, 
— espied hundreds of inscriptions chiseled on the hard faces of 
the barren rocks. Rev. Charles Foster declares, that they contain 
accounts of the passage of the Red Sea, of the thirst in the desert, 
of the waters coming from the stony rocks, and finally, refer to 
the gluttony of the Israelites and the plague in the matter of the 
quails. 

Among the Assyrian sculptures dug up by Layard in 1858, from 
under the ruins of old Nineveh, was a large stone slab, having on 
it a sculptured lion having eagles^ ivings — buried, probably, 2,300 
years since. See Dan. vii. — Earnest Words /or Honest Skeptics^ 
Mrs. H. V. Reed. 

These sculptures confirm the statements in Genesis respecting 
the Creation, the Deluge, the Tower of Babel, the contests with 
Israel, and the extraordinary facts in the life of Daniel. 

The recently discovered inscription of Nebuchadnezzar describes 
the temple of Belus, and among other sacred edifices, the Tow^r 
of Bersippa, known as the Tower of B^bel. 



94 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

The text of the Bible . . has shared the fate of other ancient 
books. . . Transcribers saw wrongly ; confounded letters similar in 
shape; //^ar^i wrongly or imperfectly ; wrote one letter instead of 
another, when letters were alike in sound; made mistakes from 
memory ; misapprehended the text ; divided words badly ; misunder- 
stood abbreviations ; improperly separated one word into two, or 
combined two into one ; marginal or liturgical annotations were 
taken into the text, etc. It is probable that the Scriptures had 
been deteriorated between origin and completion of the canon. 
{Davidson on Biblical Criticism^ Suppose the first edition of our 
English Bible, instead of being printed, the press corrected, in suc- 
cession, for two hundred years, had been all written out, each scribe 
taking any copy he could lay hold of. . . One hundred thousand 
MSS. of the Bible were probably possessed in the middle of the third 
century by several millions of Christians. Transcription must 
have been frequent. Fewest copies would be taken from the orig- 
inal — more from the second transcription, and more from the third, 
so that a copy may have been a fiftieth in succession from the 
original autograph. — North British Review^ ^^g-, 1^53- 

Now suppose this course of degradation, so painfully and so 
repulsively obtruded upon us in some lives, to be carried on indef- 
initely; let this process of self-extinction, of emptying the very 
personality, of destrojang the soul, go on through ages of ages, 
and what would be left at last.? What but the ashes of flames.? 
what but the graves of souls.? what but the shades of immortal 
minds.? what but a world which would be the insane asylum of 
the universe.? Is that what Jesus meant, when he spoke of Him 
who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.? 

. . . . There are souls now living which seem to grow less 
and less human, more and more Satanic, under increasing light. 
There are lives which, so far as we can judge from the little arc 
of them to be measured upon this earth, — like a parabola, whose 
curve, if prolonged into infinity, would never return into itself, — 
seem to recede farther and farther from the light, and the love of 
God. Their direction is towards the outer darkness. — Newnian 
Smyth. 

To suppose that Omnipotence, — if such a thing be possible, — 
will take a soul out from all its past habits and belongings, and 



SCRIPTURES — GOD INSPIRED. 95 

set it down in some new state entirely foreign from its bent and 
want, is a vain imagination. — JR. //. Hedge. 

What if it should prove that there is such a thing as a perpetu- 
ally enslaved will — a will which under the dominion of sin has 
lost its character of freedom and spontaneity, and becomes like a 
machine, which goes on repeating the same motions, and can 
originate no others? Suppose all healing, and helping, and re- 
storing power withdrawn, and withdrawn forever, what is to hinder 
the coming into play of that law of persistency, which will keep 
the lost soul moving perpetually upon that line, which in the day 
of its freedom it deliberately chose, and which now, in the day of 
its thralldom, it is powerless to forsake? — W, R. Huntirigton. 

Does probation extend beyond the present lifef As to the truth or 
probability, that redemptive influence is retro-active as well as antic- 
ipative, — as to those who lived before the manifestation of God 
in Christ, who never were made acquainted with the Revelation 
through Him, and, as to those, likewise, in the present or the 
future, who may die without such knowledge, see Phih ii: g-ii; 
I Peter Hi: I g, 20^ and iv:6; '-'- Dorner on the Future State'''; and 
" Farrar^s Early Days of Christianity P 

The author of this book is not prepared to receive Farrar's special 
exegesis of these passages, and the inferences therefrom, nor will 
students of the Bible, generally, it is believed, — since they involve 
such a positive contradiction of many and emphatic affirmations 
of the Scriptures, and their prevailing tone throughout, from their 
Alpha to their Omega ; and, since they must prove a most fearful 
and dangerous anodyne and sedative to man's guilty apprehension 
of Future Retribution, and must induce neglect, this side of the 
grave, of the great salvation proffered — " To-Day," not To-Morrow ; 
in Time^ not Eternity ! 

" If language have any meaning, this language means that Christ, 
when His Spirit descended into the lower world, proclaimed the 
message of salvation to the once impenitent dead. 

"In referring to the judgment which awaits the heathen., Peter 
attempers the awful thought of their iniquities and of the future 
retribution which awaited them, by saying, with a view to this 
very state of things (eis touto\ that the Gospel was preached to 
the dead, — in order that, however terrible might be the judgments 



96 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

which would befall their human nature, the hope of some spiritual 
share in the divine life might not be forever excluded at the mo- 
ment of death." — F. TV. Farrar., Early Days of Christianity. 

Farrar's inference from his exegesis is as follows, and is legiti- 
mate, if the latter is correct; if so, then sinners, and all are, need 
not be much disturbed with apprehensions of the Future, and may 
continue to live supremely for the purpose of having a ^^ good''^ 
or a bad " titne " in this life, — according to their estimate. It is 
not believed that either the exegesis or the inference can be 
Scripturally sustained. 

" If Christ preached to dead 7nen 'who nvere once disobedient., then, 
Scripture shows us, that the moment of death does not necessa- 
rily involve a final and hopeless torment (why not simply state it 
as it is. Dr. Farrar, the inevitable co7isequences of sin unaverted and 
unremedied?^ for every sinful soul." 

One of Dorner's remarks is as follows : " The absoluteness of 
Christianity demands that no one be judged before Christianity 
has been made acceptable and brought near to him. But that is 
not the case in this life with millions of human beings. Nay, 
even within the church there are periods and circles where the 
Gospel does not really approach men as that which it is. More- 
over, those dying in childhood have not been able to decide per- 
sonally for Christianity." — The Future State^ translated by Smyth. 

Those who have not been blessed with the special light of 
Christianity, of course, will not be called to account for what they 
did not have, but for what they did have,^ — ^whether of the Patri- 
archal, the Mosaic, or the Prophetic dispensations, or their " nat- 
ural" or rational light, — whether or not, embodied in their various 
ethnic religions, or in the solitary acquisitions of each individual 
soul, from within or without. It is not necessary to resort to such 
imagined extension of probation, to relieve such disturbed souls of 
such difficulty of reconciliation, with the goodness and justice of 
God. Let it be repeated : " In every nation, he \h.2Xfeareth Him., 
and ivorheth righteousness^ is acceptable to Him.'''* Acts X.'SS- " Love 
is of God, and every one that loveth is begotten of God., and knoweth 
God." i,yoh7i iv:y. "Ye know, that every one that doeth righteous- 
ness is ~kmi» of Hi7nP I John ii: sq. 



OHAPTEE III. 



THE SITUATION — PAST AND PRESENT. 

But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt 
not eat of it : for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt 
surely die. — Geit. it: ly. 

The soul that sinneth, it shall die. — Ezek. xviii: 4, 

Turn ye, turn ye from your evil vs^ays ; for why will ye die, O 
house of Israel.^ — Ezek. xxxiii: 11. 

For ask now of the days that are past, which were before thee, 
since the day that God created man upon the earth, and ask from 
the one side of heaven unto the other, whether there hath been 
any such thing as this great thing is, or hath been heard like it? 

Did ever people hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst 
of the fire, as thou hast heard, and live.? 

Or hath God essayed to go and take Him a nation from the 
midst of another nation, by testings, by signs, and by wonders, 
and by war, and by a mighty hand, and by a stretched-out arm, 
and by great terrors, according to all that the Lord your God did 
for you in Egypt before your eyes } 

Unto thee it was shewed, that thou mightest know that the 
Lord He is God; there is none else besides Him. — Deut. iv: ^2-3^- 

O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear 
Me, and keep all My commandments always, that it might be well 
with them, and with their children forever! — Deut. v: 2g. 

See! I have set before thee this day, life and good, and death, 
and evil: . , . , I call Heaven and Earth to record this day 

H 



98 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

against jou, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and 
cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may 
live. — Deut. xxx: ij-i<p. 

The Lord does not desire that any should perish, 

but that all should come to repentance. — // Pet. iii: 9. 

It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the judgment, 
than for you. — Luke x: 14. 

Mccl. vii: 20; ix: j; Gen. vi: ^; viii: 21; I Kings viii: 46; II 
Chron. vi: ^6. 

God — the Creator, Omnipotent Spirit, Infinite Per- 
son, Divine Father, Is — Must Be. The consciousness, 
the aspiration, the hunger and thirst for Him are in- 
wrought in the spiritual constitution of men. The 
Ideal necessitates The Eeal. The Desire involves 
The Desired. 

But what are the appalling facts that confront men 
as they come to the realization of the situation ? 

Evil, — its origin, necessity, sufferance, the permitted 
lapse into it of him so gloriously made, as is affirmed, 
at the first; the gravitation thereby of his descendants 
to it, — result ordained and pre-arranged, surely fore- 
seen; the element to attract, and to educe this vitiosity 
original or hereditary in the human soul, — affinities of 
subject and object for each other; the reconciliation 
of the permission of the existence of all this, with the 
supremacy of One Just God, is the incomprehended 
mystery to man. It has baffled all, — the mightiest to 
this hour. 

Why there are evil tendencies in men? Why 

the existence of such a subtle and potent Enemy 
Personal, as has been assumed in all faiths, and is of 



THE SITUATION — PAST AND PRESENT. 99 

universal recognition? Why men are compelled to 
confront him ever in their pilgrimage, to the last 
hour? — he, invisible, tireless, sleepless, ever intent on 
his one diabolic aim, — they, for the major portion of 
their existence, preoccupied, wearied, unsuspecting, 
not on guard. Why the Omnipotent does not anni- 
hilate at once this Evil, and the Prince of It? Why 
did He permit its existence at all ? Why He does not 
constrain men to do right, and restrain them from 
doing wrong? Why earthquakes, tornadoes, confla- 
grations, pestilences, diseases and the like, manifold 
calamities, are suffered to tumble upon and to torture, 
beyond endurance, stalwart men, dear women and 
children — dearer from their helplessness and inno- 
cency — all such inscrutable mysteries of Providence? 
Why existence at all, under such conditions? Why 
the feeble-minded, the single and just-minded, — minds 
that mete the rights and interests of their neighbors, 
as they prescribe their own, — are compelled to con- 
tend, even for the necessities of life, while the grasp- 
ing, the avaricious, the rapacious, the covetous, the 
unscrupulous, are allowed to monopolize the bounties of 
earth, — more, excessively more than they need and 
can use; their capacity, by providential allotment, and 
superadded increment, being reduplicated and intens- 
ified a thousand-fold, — to turn the screw of oppression 
as they will, upon the other class? Why the wicked 
wax in material, political, social, commercial power, 
and the righteous wane in it? 'Tis the old, unsatis- 
fied inquiry, — the interrogation of Job thirty-four 
hundred or more years since, — ever propounded in 
every generation. 



100 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 



Why the panacea for the world diseased, the 



special manifestation of God in the Flesh, was so long 
delayed? Why, at the first, it was in the presence of 
a comparatively few only?' Why millions upon mill- 
ions have been left, eA^en now, to come and go in dark- 
ness, that is portended, and revealed to be for the exit, 

I. Those who think the objection against revelation, from its 
light not being universal, to be of weight, should observe, that 
the Author of Nature, in numberless instances, bestows that upon 
some which He does not upon others, who seem equally to stand 
in need of it. Indeed, He appears to bestow all His gifts with the 
most promiscuous variety among creatures of the same species: 
health and strength, capacities of prudence and of knowledge, 
means of improvement, riches, and all external advantages; . . 
the same principle which disposed Him also to place creatures of 
different moral capacities in different religious situations; and 
even the same creatures, in different periods of their being. . . 
So that were revelation universal, yet, from men's different capac- 
ities of understanding, from the different lengths of their lives, 
their different educations, and other external circumstances, and 
from their difference of temper and bodily constitution-; their 
religious situations would be widely different, and the disadvantage 
of some in comparison with others, perhaps, altogether as much 
as at present. — Butler^s Analogy. 

The religious history of mankind as recorded in the Old Testa- 
ment, corresponds with what, on a ^priori grounds, might seem 
natural and probable on the part of a father God ; frequent direct 
interposition in the infancy of the race ; rudimentary instruction 
and progressive methods of discipline during its adolescence; a 
full and final disclosure of truth, law, motive, sanction, recom- 
pense, for its maturity. 

Had Christ come earlier. He would, as we have seen, have found 
men too unsettled and iiuprovident in their worldly habits, to 
accept a religion whose treasures were to be laid up in heaven. 

The Christian revelation, coming as it did when the world was 
best fitted to receive it, meets an inherent want, a universal crav- 



THE SITUATION — PAST AND PRESENT. 101 

the Blackness of Darkness Forever? He can avert, 
and does in His Word profess to stay from His sinning 
creature, — a repentant transgressor, certain spiritual 
sequences upon himself, or the statutory penalty of 

ing of mankind, the desire of all nations, the prophecy of all 
antecedent ages, the earnest postulate of the religion of nature. — 
Christianity^ the Religion of Nature^ Peabody, 

At first, God revealed Himself in sensible manifestations, which 
were an inevitable accommodation to the needs of humanity, — 
while still in pupilage, just as every tutor has now to condescend 
to the capacity of the child. With Moses He spoke " face to face, 
as a man talketh with his friend." Ex. xxxiii:ii; Num. xii:8. 
Then came miracles wrought by divine power, through human 
instrumentality; and, in these we may note a certain internal 
educational progress from the material to the spiritual ; the mira- 
cles of inspiration becoming gradually the more prevailing forms 
of divine manifestation, until, in the miracle of miracles, the 
personal Christ, the deepest spiritual mysteries of redemption 
were unfolded, and finally, through the outpouring of the Spirit 
and the inspired gospel records, revelation became abidingly an 
inward thing conveyed to us by the Word and Spirit. — Modern 
Doubt and Christian Beliefs Christlieb. 

As God was not obliged to make all His creatures equal; to 
make men angels, or to endue all men with the same faculties 
and capacities as any ; so neither is He bound to make all men 
capable of the same degree or the same kind of happiness, or to 
afford all men the very same means and opportunities of obtaining 
it. — Dr. SamH Clarke^ Nat. and Rev. Religion. 

These several systems or dispensations, .... in different 
ways, are all professedly and avowedly characterized as being 
designed "adaptations" to the particular wants, capacities, condi- 
tions and circumstances of the narties addressed. — Baden Powell^ 
Christianity Without Jiidaisin. 

In no age, from the apostolic downwards, did the evidences of 
the Gospel profess to be adapted to convince the mass ; it addressed 
itself to the few, and the hereditary belief of the mass followed. — 
Mozley. 



102 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

his transgression. Does He, can He, as they malefi- 
ciently affect others? 

O why did God originally expose His creature? — 
not avert, at the first? Why did He not make him 
proof against all possibility of being overborne by 
temptation? 

These are the questionings that have con- 
founded souls, — agonies, in the throe of which brains 
have reeled and toppled over into the abyss of mental 
ruin, — what is sadder, into the hopeless shades of dis- 
trust, the forlorn Eclipse of Faith. 

To all such interrogations, no satisfactory, authori- 
tative response comes. Relief, outside of Christianity, 
comes only from an analogical source, — that is feeble, 
sufficeth not. The wise earthly parent does not expli- 
cate the reason or the reasonableness of much of his 
conduct to his child. He is constrained to interpose, 
to interfere, to stay, to discipline, to chasten. Jesus 
had many things to say to His disciples, but He 
refrained, since they, then, were not able to receive. 
Through His Spirit, He has guided into all needed 
Truth, as disciples were prepared for the reception. 

Inquisitive, perplexed, confounded One ! Thou must 
wait. Thou canst not do aught else. Thou must wait 
for such apprehension as is possible to thee, and may 
be permitted in the Hereafter. What if thou shouldst 
never comprehend? Couldst thou, by searching, find 
out the Almighty — to perfection? 'Tis not possible. 
Be content to be unable to reach some depths, — un- 
fathomable by the plummet of thy finite understand- 
ing, — to solve some mysteries of infinite knowledge. 
Know thy limitations. Into that mystery, like pro- 



THE SITUATION — PAST AND PRESENT. 103 

found, hopeful, as hopeless seems the other, coeval, 
running parallel with and ordained to be its eternal 
antidote, " angels desired to look." In vain. The love 
of God, through the Manifested, surpasseth knowl- 
edge. EpK Hi: 19. Over against the first, set the 
last. No Evil ? No Good. No antagonism ? No devel- 
opment. No Fall? No recovery. No test? No strength. 
No discipline? No education. No trial? No purifi- 
cation, — no exaltation, — life ever on a dead level, — 
indeed, necessarily on a descent, for every soul must 
ascend or descend, — it cannot move on a horizontal 
plane through Eternity, — no ascent in purity, — no 
growth through Grace. No sinners? No Savior, no 
such Fatherhood, no such Infinite Love revealed, no 
such perfectibility of human character attained and 
illustrated, no such multitudes ascending to Heaven 
"out of great tribulation," no such glories of the 
celestial state. God sets the one over against the 
other. ' 

Mystery! O yes, it ever confronts and confounds. 
Everything is, — Existence, the Universe, Time and 
Eternity, Life and Death, Paradise and Gehenna, — 

I. Endless progress toward perfection is surely a greater good 
than a perfect finite state. 

The stimulus to progress must come from conscious imper- 
fection, want, and pain. 

A world without a flaw, without a want, without a pang; 

a world in which no storm ever darkens the sky, no struggle ever 
taxes the will, and no discomfort ever ruffles the breast; a world 
in which no battle is ever fought, and consequently no victory 
ever won ; in which there is nothing to be desired, and conse- 
quently nothing to hope — and what have you.? A state of perfect 
happiness.? — a state of pleasureless torpor and measureless ennuu 



104 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

yet some light is vouchsafed in such darkness. Now 
it flashes — then it floods upon it. Enough, we must 
conclude, for eternal weal, — enough, it must be, for 
the Present, or He — the Good, — the Just, — the Holy, 
— the Wise would have given more. We must trust 
in Infinite Rectitude. 

What more, then, can be said to souls, in such per- 
turbation and distress, explicatory, consolatory, and to 
their restless, tireless, unsatiated cries for more light? 

. . . . Suffering is the price we pay for enjoyment; disaster, 
the price of safety ; difficulty and danger, the price of progress. 

Optimism is the true solution of the problem of evil 

Evil there must alv^ays be Progress is better than 

perfection. — Hedge. 

If everything w^hich exists be according to a good order, and 
for the best^ then of necessity there is no such thing as real ill in 
the universe — nothing ill with respect to the whole. — Lord 
Shaftesbury {Gillett^ 

Without the sensibilities and passions, through whicn suffering 
is possible, the union of soul and body could not long be pre- 
served The necessary waste^of the body requires to 

be repaired by food, but there would be no security for this with- 
out the pangs of hunger Pains and diseases follow 

from the fact that bodies are liable to dissolution. Moral evil 
springs from human choice. But man is free in his choice, and 
is responsible for it. The pleasant, the profitable, the honest, or 
the absolutely good, are set before men We are con- 
scious of our liberty. We can deny our appetites. We can, in a 
manner, change the nature of things, by the obstinacy of our 
choice. Evil can be substituted for good, falsehood for truth. 
Errors of understanding may spring from depraved election, rather 
than cause it. The violence of passion may have the same origin. 
The principle of freedom in choice is thus vindicated. Yet, it is 
attended with evil, viz., the power to sin. Thinking beings can 
be happy only as they are free. The actions of free beings will 
produce a contingency in material things, and the assistance which 



THE SITUATION — PAST AND PRESENT. 105 

Not much, and that repetitional. They must trust. 
That He — the Almighty is Good, and doeth all things 
well. That all things shall work together for the good 
of them who love Him. That no thing, or Person 
shall be able to separate loved ones from Him. That 
terrestrial life is probationary and prelusive to the 
celestial, that they see only in part, and that through 

God gives the soul is under laws as certain as those of the natural 
world. — Dr, Win, King (Gilletf). 

Good and bad only express relative notions There 

is no evil in God. We call good what is useful to us, and that 
evil, which obstructs what we call good. 

If there were no evil, no danger, nothing injurious, every occa- 
sion and necessity for human wisdom would be taken away. 
With good only in view, what need of reflection, understanding, 
reason. Men might always remain infants, and without experi- 
ence. But mingle the bitter, the useless, the poisonous with what 
they have, and wisdom becomes a necessity. — S;pinoza {Gilletf). 

If sin is not possible, neither is virtue; if wrong cannot be 
committed, neither can right; if there is no power to do evil, 
neither is there power to do good; if freedom of choice cannot 
exist in wickedness, neither can it in holiness. 

If virtue is the highest interest of man, is not the liberty to do 
wrong essential to its very existence.^ 

Given the possibility of right, we have the possibility of wrong. 

Cause and effect in the world of mind are essentially different 
from cause and effect in the world of matter. Necessity rules in 
the one, freedom in the other. 

Because a man acts from motives, he is free, for there is always, 
ab infra^ a power to the contrary. — Chas. E. Lord. 

Without the spur of evil, there had been no moral worth, no 
freedom, no merit of right dealing. God allows the evil for the 
sake of the good. The necessary limitations of power and wisdom 
in all finite beings leave open a possibility to evil. 

If God should open the question, and should be pleased to offer 
me on the one side absolute scientific truth, and on the other, the 



106 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

a turbid medium. That in the Hereafter, the veil 
intervening between the sensuous and the spiritual, — 
the terrestrial and the celestial, will be removed; and, 
that doubtless, they will then see as they are seen, 
and know as they are known. When there shall be 
nothing but the soul, there will be no intervening 
object to prevent it from perceiving what everything is.' 
That only by conflict the soul can become sturdy and 
stalwart, developed, disciplined, purified, exalted, — 
that evil, personal and impersonal, is the antagonist 
and the antagonism requisite for such induration, devel- 
opment and exaltation. That doubtless, and for such 
purpose, it was provided. That without antagonism, 
disapointment, a soul never would realize dependence, 
— be forced to cry out for God. Would it, never baf- 
fled, never tried, never perplexed, never brought into 

search after such truth, in all humilitj, I would saj, " Let it be 
the search after truth, as that which belongeth to Thy creature, O 
Lord." — Leihjiitz. 

Goethe is represented as saying : " I must confess, that I should 
not know what to do with eternal bliss, if it did not offer me new 
problems and new difficulties to be mastered." — Prof. Parh^ Bib. 
Sac. 

Suppose that we could remove from the world all outward evil, 
^et rid of sickness, pain, poverty, death. Would not the worst 
part of evil still remain.'^ Would not discontent, selfishness, envy, 
wilfulness, cruelty, self-indulgence continue.^ — y. F. Clarke, 

There is some soul of goodness in things evil. 
Would men observingly distill it out. 

— Slmkespeare. 

I. Cum autem nihil erit praeter animum, nulla res objecta 
impediet, quo minus percipiat quale quidque sit. — Tusculan ^es- 



THE SITUATION — PAST AND PRESENT. 107 

extremity, ever pray? Would not every one from the 
highest to the lowest, as he paced about, looked up, 
contemplated the works of his hand, exclaim: Is 
not this the Great Babylon I have built, by the might 
of my power and for the honor of my majesty? Dan. 
iv: 30. That free will, affections must have choice and 
desires. That Evil after Good can be the only alterna- 
tive choice or desire of the soul. That peril in choice 
is involved in its freedom. 

We have but Faith : we cannot know ; 
For knowledge is of things, we see ; 
And, jet we trust it comes from Thee, 
A beam in darkness : let it grow. * 

And it may be expected, that through the intricate 
mazes of unfolding providences, men must ever grope 
and plod their way. A soul cannot be inactive, qui- 
escent, There, as it cannot be Here. It must progress 
or regress, ascend or descend. Progression or regres- 
sion, ascension or descension must be eternal; since 
the soul is and must continue ever to be. The unex- 
plored Unknown Unseen will ever widen and extend 
in the eternal journey. Mightier problems will rise 
to confront the understanding after those now baffling 
insight and apprehension have been solved. Thus 
must the Finite move to the Infinite. Hail, therefore, 
to the eternal progress upward! But if downward 
any soul shall go, whither shall it be ? To what depths ! 
When shall it cease to sink? What plummet shall be 
able to pierce the depths of darkness and of woe for 

* Tennyson, "In Memoriam." 



108 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

that sinking soul, in the nether world? For, beyond 

*' the lowest depths," 

there is still 

" a lower deep." 

Though there be a dark shadow on Creation, the 
Universe is surely a glorious manifestation of the 
power and skill of the Creator. Can there not, like- 
wise, be discerned glimpses, if not ecstatic visions of 
His goodness and love, of munificent design, in the 
provisions for man's temporal weal, in the future 
" things which God hath prepared for them who love 
Him." I Cor, ii:9. And Happiness is not staked on 
exterior and material conditions, but on interior and 
spiritual. There are poverty and privation; there are 
ills and bodily pains; there are wearing cares and con- 
suming anxieties; there are heart-aches and many 
sorrows; hopes ever deferred, and cups of bitter dis- 
appointment to be drained to the dregs; confidences 
betrayed, and enmities engendered; there are the suf- 
ferings of others, mental and physical; there is the 
inarticulate suffering of the brute creation,' intensify- 
ing man's by the witness thereof. But none of these 
can touch at its core the weal of a soul. They may 
serve as instruments and means to discipline and 

I. " Hunting is a sin," said the preacher Frejlinghausen to 
Frederick William I. (king of Prussia), "a disallowed pleasure, 
because no man can do right to torment and kill a poor beast after 
it has been run down and lies panting and exhausted; that ;pa7iting 
is the sighing of the creature to its Creator^ and you must give an 
account to God for what you do then^ — Germ. Rat,^ Dr, K, R, Hag- 
enbach. 



THE SITUATION — PAST AND PEESENT. 109 

indurate, to purify and to ennoble. Remorse springs 
only from the consciousness of guilt, — the sting of 
which is gone when the sin is repented of and for- 
given. Suffering of man and brute may induce pain 
and bewilderment, but the trustful one will refer the 
inexplicability to a just God, and leave the burden and 
the responsibility of the sorrow there. Is not sin 
voluntary, and cannot the temptation thereto be re- 
sisted? Confessed, and upon manifest contrition, will 
it not be forgiven, — remembered by Him for penal 
satisfaction no more? The undertone, for the most 
part, in life's music is minor, — one prolonged, despair- 
ful wail; but the seriousness and the sadness of a 
Christian heart are the chastening prelude to the 
anthem of eternal joy. By them " the heart is made 
better." Eccl. vii: 3, Personal suffering conduces to 
the discipline, patience, submission, purification of the 
sufferer, — the development of sympathy for others 
like tried, to the ultimate, resultant joy, strength, 
enlargement, exaltation of the obedient one. Heaven 
and Gehenna are also states, if localities. 

Will Evil be eternal? Is it an elemental and neces- 
sary factor in the constitution and evolution of the 
universe, or an incident subsequently intruded for 
the development, discipline, purification, and exalta- 
tion of man? Will it ever be extirpated? Is Good on 
the gain over it?' The external manifestations of this 

I. The time, therefore, will actually come, when all the effects 
of mj sin upon myself, and all the effects of my sin in others, 
which remain in the current of the world's moral history, will be 
met and counteracted by the power of love exhibited in the sacri- 
fice of Christ. The first Adam, as a living being, originated ^ 



110 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

malign are terrible and appalling. But set over against 
them the magnificent and puissant instrumentalities 
of Good, organized and being organized, wielded and 
to be wielded with constantly reduplicated power, by 
the consecrated host of God's elect, under the leader- 
ship of Him, who will " subdue all things to Himself." 
Could the ratio of the gain of Good over Evil be ascer- 
tained from tabulated statistics of the past, might not a 
time be designated, when it, as a disturbing and con- 
flicting element, would disappear? 

It is evident from the constitution and course of 
nature, — imperfectly apprehended; from personal con- 
sciouness,^ — the declared will of God in His Word, — 

stream of evil which descended in the life flow of the race ; the 
second Adam, as a life-giving Spirit, originated a stream of mercy 
which meets the dark current and sweetens it into love. Thus 
the flow of the Love- Fountain will in the end purify the earth 
from sin and uncleanness. " In those days I will open a fountain." 
. . . The redeemed soul is not only restored, but it is imbued 
with an influence which is restorative. An accumulative process 
thus goes on : every restored mind adding to the powxr of the 
reaction originated by Christ against sin. As individuals are 
restored in Christ, the recuperative energy of the race is increased, 
etc. — Jas. B, Walker^ God Revealed in Creatmt^ etc. 

One of the greatest curses pronounced alike by the Scriptures 
and natural law upon evil is, that it shall have no name long upon 
the earth. — Jos. Cook. 

Still there is another view, in the contemplation of which a soul 
must stand aghast. Let this also be considered. Who can with- 
stand its impressiveness? 

*' Everything we see of sin, in the world of fact, shows it to be a 
desolating, extirpating power in souls; killing out by degrees 
even the faculties and possibilities of religion, and reducing, in 
that way, all the hopes and chances of restoration, down to the 
very last edge of life But it does not follow, that the 



THE SITUATION — PAST AND PRESENT. Ill 

history, general and individual; that the Creator de- 
signed His creature to be happy, — on the condition of 
obedience, — desires him, most intensely, to be so. 
"Incline your ear, and come unto Me; hear, and your 
soul shall live." Isa. Iv: 3. "As I live, saith the Lord 
God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; 
but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn 
ye, TURN YE from your evil ways; for why will ye die'^ 
Ezek. xxxiii: 11, 

" I call heaven and earth to record this day against 
you, that I have set before you life and death, bless- 
ing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou 
and thy seed may live." Deut. xxx: 19, 

Declaration could not be stronger, solicitude ten- 
waste will operate a cessation of being, because there are faculties 
and powers not wasted. The memory is as faithful a recorder of 
what is bad as it could be of what is good. The conscience, with 
its law of right, is not extirpated, any more than the sense of time 
or space. The will is even confirmed by habit in a state of unsub- 
duable capacity, and the will is the grand centralizing element of 
personality itself. The affinities for what is bad are as durable as 
they would be in good. The progressive diminution, therefore, is 
never to end in cessation, but may be well figured by the asymp- 
tote line, which, as the mathematicians will even demonstrate, has 
the remarkable distinction of forever approaching a certain curve, 
even by a fixed law, yet never making coincidence with it, etc. 
. . . . Even the suffering that is left, is that of a nature taper- 
ing down to a diminished grade of feeling, or abject continuity of 
consciousness, that is only the more desolate that it cannot utterly 
die. — Dr. Bushnell. 

The present earth is a microphone. Its sounds, that we thought 
were stilled, reverberate — even the little ones — forever. He who 
stealthily walks in sin, that his footseps fall light as the tread of a 
fly, will find every one loud as a war-horse tramp. — The Mystery 
of Miracles. 



112 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

derer, entreaty more melting. We might expect such 
a manifestation from such a God, — a Father. He 
made men sovereign and responsible in their choices. 
Choice implies the possibility of disaster — the greatest 
possible. Life and death are set before the soul every 
hour. The requisition pressed upon it is to choose! 
Choose thou must. Whom, what wilt thou choose? 
This is thy potent business every hour, — Choose! 
These eternally recurring issues thou canst not shirk. 
"Every day is Doomsday" "" to him whose choice is 
bad. Thy way to ruin, O transgressor, is hedged up 
on either side, — can be ever, if thou wilt be, by the 
walling in of right choices. Thou canst do it, — work 
out thy salvation through grace, if thou wilt; indeed, 
thou must do it, if thou wouldst be saved. 

Out of the silences of the wickedest one, even, 

comes the confession: — The Hand that made me is 
Divine. To this hour I have been destroying myself. 
I am the architect of my own ruin. I have had light, 
a conscience, free will. 

To what depths from what heights, O sinking soul, 
hast thou fallen! From Light to Darkness! Hope to 
Despair! From a little lower than the angels to much 
lower than the brutes. From the possibility of eternal 
life to the certainty of eternal death. From the saved 
and sanctified, to the lost and damned. Heavenward!' 
Gehenna-ward ! . 

The presence of this anticipation, — "presence not 
to be put by," fibre in the stuff of being; this con- 
sciousness inwrought and ineradicable; this prophetic 
foreboding, — fearful expectation of judgment and 

I. Emerson. 



THE SITUATION — PAST AND PRESENT. 113 

fiery indignation, that shall devour, — cpofiEpd da n^ 
eudoxv HpideGD<^y uai Ttvpo^ Z^rjXoi k6^iBiv pLaXXovvo^ 
{Heb. X : 27) — one of those " truths that wake to perish 
never," cannot be ignored by unbelief, — be stupefied 
by opiates of guilt. It 's there. The appeal is to it. 
Who is able to plead, that men have not had sufficient 
light for salvation? Though God is good, kind, and 
patient to the uttermost. He does not, cannot, as we 
see, stay or avert all the consequences of an individ- 
ual's transgression from him; perhaps not at all, as 
they disastrously affect others innocent of participa- 
tion or complicity in its affecting guilt. When such 
suffer themselves to be corrupted, through the wicked 
example, they must take the consequences of their 
own guilt, since they were free to resist, and had power 
therefor. Certain consequences upon one's own self, 
which can be averted, can only be, as with the ante- 
cedent exemplar, — by repentance. A legerdemain, 
which instantly transmutes a hoary-headed sinner, a 
ferocious human tiger, a human devil, and unrepentant 
at the last hour, into a glorified saint, is incomprehens- 
ible. There is no revelation that it is possible. He 
that is unjust, must be unjust still. He that is filthy, 
must be filthy still. The revelations of the Bible are 
more hopeful to the repenting sinner than the gener- 
alizations of the Cosmic philosopher. "Science," 
says Fiske, "knows of no such thing as reparation for 
sin. Eepentance cannot ward off punishment." 

The larceny of the penitent, forgiven, and saved 
thief on the Cross, may have been his first, and it may 
have been under the stress of want. Evidently, his 
conscience had not become seared, nor his moral sens- 

I 



114 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

ibilities utterly deadened. Habitual villainy hebetates 
the conscience and the moral sense. 

Men will be condemned only for disregard of what 
light they had. There will be few and " many stripes," 
— degrees of punishment according to the guilt. In 
their most benighted condition, they have had a con- 
science. The knowable of God is manifest in them, 
for God manifested it unto them. For the unseen 
things of Him — His eternal power and Godhead, are 
discerned, being known by His creations, — to their 
inexcusableness. Who shew the works of the law 
written in their hearts, their conscience testifying 
therewith, and their reasonings with each other — accus- 
ing or else excusing. For such as have sinned without 
law shall perish without law; and such as have sinned 
under the law shall be judged by the law: in the day 
when God shall judge the secrets of men according to 
my Gospel by Jesus Christ. Bom, i, ii. 

According to the Sacred Story, there was light for 
man in the infancy of his being. Needed instruction, 
emphatic command, positive prohibition, affectionate 
entreaty, and the most solemn, prophetic monition 
were not withheld. All that God declared, the first 
generation transmitted to the succeeding. The ante- 
diluvian preacher of righteousness took it with him 
over the Flood. In the new world, God supplemented, 
reinforced, emphasized, and enlarged what He origin- 
ally declared. He held direct converse with successive 
patriarchs. It might have been expected in the child 
age of human history. Then ensued those august, 
comprehensive deliverances on Sinai. Then were 
wrought those appalling deeds in Egypt, in attestation 



THE SITUATION — PAST AND PRESENT. 115 

of divine sovereignty, and on behalf of His chosen 
people.^ Then succeeded those imperative behests, 
stern reproofs and admonitions, "precept upon pre- 
cept, line upon line, here a little, — there a little," 
through successive dynasties to ultimate anarchy, " till 
there was no remedy." Copious, cumulative, was this 
religious light for forty centuries. Did not men orig- 
inally, did not the Hebrews, did not the heathen round 
about them, have sufficient knowledge of God, crass 
and crude as were their conceptions of Him, — of their 
relations and responsibilities to Him and to each other, 
— for their eternal well-being? Alas! the way was 
dark to many of them. Evil, ever apparent, if not 
dominant, and God's inapprehended v/ays, perplexed 
them, as they do us. But they had a degree of light: 
— who shall say it was not adequate for their condition, 
for their spiritual and eternal weal ? Did they improve 
it? Who of them in the Judgment can plead for de- 
liverance from the consequences of unrepented guilt, 
on the ground of want of light? 

In this night of the world's despair, when the mys- 
tery — of selecting one people, and such a people, to be 
the repositories of God's will, — custodians of the Law 
and the Prophets, — in this death-hour of the Hebrew 
nation, when the grand experiment seemed a failure, 
came forth "a rod out of the stem of Jesse," — the 

r. A religion with temporal sanctions was precisely what the 
Hebrews and the age of the Exodus needed. Christianity was 
too far-reaching, too spiritual, for the apprehension and faith of 
such a horde of nomads as the exiles from Egypt, — a horde much 
resembling those that now range over the steppes of Tartary. — 
Chris, Reh of Nat.^ Peabody, 



116 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

pledged, long-expected Messiah. ' Having yet there- 
fore one Son, His well beloved, He sent Him also at 
the last unto them, saying, They will reverence my 
Son'. The Spirit of the Lord rested upon Him, the 

spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of coun- 
sel and might, the spirit of knowledge, and of the fear 
of the Lord. He emphasized, and most vividly illus- 
trated by lucid statement and luminous story, the 
Fatherhood of God, and the brotherhood of men, — 
supplementing, reinforcing, and pouring a flood of 
light upon what had not been distinctly revealed. By 
solemn affirmation; by marvellous works; by the dec- 
larations of His forerunner; by audible voices from 
the Heavens; by visible tokens of the Spirit; by pro- 
phetic predictions realized in Him alone. He was the 
Son of God, as the Son of man, — the manifestation of 
God, — the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin 
of the world. He and the Father were One: — cruci- 
fied, dead, and buried. He burst from the tomb with 
the same body, or the celestial analogue of the terres- 
trial; ate with His disciples; discoursed with them; 
was handled by them; they inserted their hands into 
His pierced side, and their fingers into His perforated 
hands; when, after having been seen by His disciples 
at eleven different times, for forty days, and by more 
than five hundred at one time. He ascended with some 
of that celestial retinue and glory, with which He 
shall be seen again. 

I. Beifore the coming of our Saviour, there was general expec- 
tation spread over all the Eastern nations, that out of Judea should 
arise a person, vs^ho should be Governor of the world ; is expressly 
affirmed bj Suetonius and Tacitus. — Dr. SamH Clarhe<, 



THE SIT^UAO^ION — PAST AND PRESENT. 117 

Light sufficient for salvation through the ages! 
Who protests? Monitory, prophetic, dirge-like is that 
wail of apostrophe to certain cities for the neglect to 
improve those opportunities, and that light, which, if 
Sodom and Gomorrah, Tyre and Sidon had had, they 
would have repented: It shall be more tolerable for 
them in the day of judgment than for you. Just and 
reasonable. Who protests? Just and true are Thy 
ways, O King of Saints. Over the judgment seat 
will iiame to each individual, as he confronts his Judge, 
Thy judgment will be as thy light! Antediluvian or 
Postdiluvian! Oriental or Occidental! Hebrew or 
Gentile! Christian or Heathen sinner! Thy con- 
demnation will only be as thy light! Will that be 
unequal or unjust? and will not that be enough 9 

The apostles took up the work of their Master 
where He left it, expounded, developed, and applied 
in detail the truths He taught. The promised reign 
of the Spirit was inaugurated. Truth thus embodied, 
auxiliary revelations from Science, and out of human 
history, have combined to illustrate and fortify what 
had been orally revealed. Light from all these con- 
stantly reduplicating sources has cumulated for one 
hundred and fifty generations. With undying mem- 
ories, with quickened and intensified consciousness, 
lapsed men of these last days, when summoned to 
answer each one for himself, must cry out to the 
mountains and rocks: "Fall on us, and hide us from 
the face of Him who sitteth on the throne, and from 
the wrath of the Lamb, for the Great Day of His 
wrath has come, and who shall be able to stand?" 
Bev. vi: 16, 17. Figurative, symbolic language, didst 



118 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

thou say? Granted. But what must be the reality, 
thus prefigured? The most expressive and impressive 
illustration of the excuseless guilt of a lost one, is the 
representation of his speechlessness at the Bar of 
God. Matt xxii: 12. 

No revelation from Heaven is needed to assure men 
that they will be judged according to what they have 
had. II Cor, viii: 12. Jesus most impressively fore- 
shadowed and enforced the teaching, in those memo- 
rable woes pronounced, and in His declaration to the 
intractable Jews: "If ye were blind, ye would have 
no sin: but now ye say. We see: your sin therefore 
remaineth." John ix: 41. The nations, then, to whom 
the Gospel by Jesus Christ did not come; who did not 
have even Moses and the Prophets, will not be judged 
according to the light given under either system. 
There will be arbitrament according to that they pos- 
sessed, — that which is inwrought in the mental and 
moral constitution; discernible in the material crea- 
tion, through personal experiences, — in individual and 
general history, — divine communications in each soul; 
for no one is left without some rays of light, intromit- 
ted through the Spirit. It is not believed, that the 
Spirit of God has left any soul, however benighted, 
in utter darkness, without an effectual witness and 
illumination, — without adequate knowledge for its res- 
cue from peril. Surely, if the heathen, and the basest 
are in Christendom itself, will live according to what 
they have, the way out of their darkness into light, 
from alienation to reconciliation with God, will be 
sufficiently plain. If they are lost in refusing to obey 
the Truth, they will be without excuse. A deeper woe 



THE SITUATION — PAST AND PRESENT. 119 

must settle upon those who have enjoyed the accumu- 
lated light of these last days; have voluntarily blinded 
their eyes to the heavenly penetration; otherwise, 
what is the import of those fearful objurgations of 
the Divine One upon neglect to improve light and 
privilege ? But can Woe extend into the other world, 
and that eternally, where the Supreme One is Love? 
If Here, — why not There ? 

But, though men open their minds to receive with 
alacrity and gladness the light that will shine upon 
them, the greatest peril is involved in the presumption 
that intellectual acceptance of the truth saves; that 
regeneration of heart, godliness in life, will ensue 
upon its crystallization in the mind; that mere pro- 
fession is possession; that theory is practice; faith, 
works. Orthodox multitudes have died under such 
delusions. Mohammedans, Brahmins, Buddhists have 
been as rigid in their beliefs, — intense in their aspira- 
tions, and as punctilious in the observance of prescribed 
rites and ceremonies, — as ready to offer themselves 
and theirs in sacrifice as other religionists. Who more 
so than the Pharisees ? Who nicer in the tithing of 
mint, anise, and cumin? Who, in their time, had more 
religious light? As indicated by precept and practice, 
how far were they from a correct apprehension of the 
Fatherhood of God, and the brotherhood of all men? 
How little they comprehended the spirit and scope of 
God's commands, while avowedly so rigid, punctilious, 
scrupulous, in their literal observance! Jesus de- 
nounced them as blind guides; whited sepulchres; 
vipers; pillars of salt; monumental warnings for all 
times. Presumption of being good, of having satis- 



120 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

f actorily given heed to the behests of God, — of having 
met personally the conditions of salvation through 
Jesus Christ, because the mind's assent had been pre- 
viously given to the equity and reasonableness of His 
requirements, has been, and will ever be, the greatest 
peril in the profession of Christianity. ' 

"The Light of the World,"— "The Light of Life" 
has come. Men have had Him, with the interpretation, 
development, — the illumination of His Spirit; the 
experience of disciples, and the evolution of God's 
providences, for fifty generations, — what do they think 
of this Christ? Who do they say He is? What are 
their common judgments respecting Him? As it was 
then, so now. " Some doubt." He is, as ever, incom- 
prehensible, save on the basis of His super-humanity, 
— His Deity, — the manifestation of God in the Flesh, 
— Son of God, as Son of Man. Skeptics, coarse and 
refined, have risen successively to confront and scru- 
tinize His claims. Beginning with scoffs and revilings, 
they have ended with invocations of blessings on His 
name. " Never man spake like this man," has been 
the cry extorted from every unbelieving, as well as 
every believing heart. He is insolvable to those who 
would solve Him on the basis of humanity alone. Can 

I. An example to imitate is not my primary and sorest need. 
I can find plenty of good examples when I want them, scattered 
along the ages, much nearer to me and more easy of imitation 
than the example of Jesus Christ Our deepest neces- 
sities are not in this direction. Models of behavior for one man, 
will not serve for another ; his environments, his duties, and the 
sweep of his inward life being altogether different. We want 
God, our deepest hunger and thirst reach thitherward. We want 
Him both within and from without. — T/ie Heart of Christy Sears, 



THE SITUATION — PAST AND PRESENT. 12l 

I* 

He be solved otherwise than on the assumption that 
He was what He professed to be? He answered to 
the predicted, the anticipated, the aspired for in all 
pre-Messianic times. He is the central figure in all 
subsequent history. It is now evident, to the superfi- 
cial, even, in observation, that ultimately this " stone 
cut out of the mountain without hands" shall fill the 
whole earth. His kingdom is an everlasting king- 
dom, and all dominions shall serve and obey Him. 
Dan. '^vii. The nation and the kingdom that will 
not serve Him, shall perish. Is. Ix: 12. Books at- 
tempting to analyze, and to glorify Him, multiply. 
To Him and His utterances, all controversies and 
reforms; all disputed questions in ethics, politics, com- 
merce or trade are referred for test and decision. Civ- 
ilization, since His advent, has been evolved through 
the leaven of his precepts. Magnificent temples to 
His praise are throned on every street of the great 
cities of the civilized world, — humbler ones on the 
cross-roads of the interior. On every street are do- 
mestic Bethels to His praise. 

" Our London, whatever is good in houses and pal- 
aces, in shops and traffic, in engines and ships, in 
churches and cathedrals, in the skilled and grand 
realities of modern life, — is the embodiment of Divine 
thought in humanity, — or human thought inspired by 
Him who is the head of men. Who built Westminster 
Abbey? St. Paul's Cathedral? Look into the heart 
of the matter, it was that Divine Hebrew Man." ' 

Is it possible, that men whose energies, physical 
and mental, are professionally devoted to the acquisi- 

I. Mystery of Miracles. 



122 THE LIGHT OF LIFK. 

tion of wealth, would be willing to consecrate so much 
of it to His kingdom, if He was not, verily, to them, 
— in intellectual recognition, at least, the Christ, the 
Savior, God over all blessed evermore ? The name 
of Jesus is thus monumentally exalted everywhere on 
the earth. The people sitting in darkness saw a 
great light, and upon those sitting in the region and 
shadow of death, light is sprung up. Mati. iv : 16, 

" Over thrones and proud empires the Nazarene has 
walked, on shield and pennon his feet have trodden; 
and to-day, amid the kingdoms of the earth. He 
marches on, the center of agencies more destructive 
than cannon, more terrible than an army with ban- 
ners." ' 

" The Person of the Christ is the fulfilment of all 
that we know best of both God and man. Given a 
God who is Spirit, and who is Love, and man who is a 
spirit and for Love, and the Christ becomes only a 
question of time." ^ 

"Once in the world's history was born a Man. 
Once in the roll of ages, out of innumerable failures, 
from the stock of human nature, one Bud developed 
itself into a faultless Flower. One perfect specimen 
of humanity has God exhibited on earth." ^ 

" He has fixed for all time the conception of pure 
religion; every building that has been erected has 
been erected on His foundation."'* 

"The most extraordinary of the problems of his- 
tory, . . . strange destiny, well calculated to bring 
the marvels of the world of spirits within our fingers' 

1. W. H. Murray. 3. F. W. Robertson. 

2. Smyth. 4. Renan. 



THE SITUATION — PAST AND PRESENT. 123 

reach, — that of an obscure man, . . . author of 
the grandest revolution that ever changed the face of 
humanity, become the link between two leaves of his- 
tory, loved furiously, furiously attacked, so that there 
is not one round of the moral ladder on which He has 
not been placed. Native of a small district, very ex- 
clusive in its nationality, very provincial in thought, 
He has become the universal ideal. Athens and Eome 
adopted him, the Barbarians fell at His feet, and even 
to-day, rationalism does not look at Him closely except 
on its knees.'' "^ 

" He is really the Son of God, and the Son of Man. 
. . . God in Man. . . . Behold there the living 
God! This is the adorable One! " ^ • 

" Between thee and God there will no longer be any 
distinction." ' 

" Jesus is without equal; His glory remains complete 
and will be revered forever. The memory of His life 
has been like the perfume of another world, and all 
history is incomprehensible without him.'" 

" For, of Him, and through Him, and to Him are 
all things; to whom be glory forever." 

I. Renan. 



ILLUSTRATIVE AND SUGGESTIVE. 



As fast as we understand the material world, will God's wisdom, 

power, and goodness come forth Then we shall* see 

that the terrible evils which disturb the world, — slavery, war, 
drunkenness, the despot's oppression, the priest's hypocrisy, — are 
only a part of the divine purpose, means for to-day, not ends for- 
ever; they are to the world of man what night and darkness, and 
storm and earthquake are to the world of matter. . . . Then 
we shall find, that tl^ pain which we thought a mere tormentor, 
sent to vex us, was but a watch-dog, which the Eternal Father 
set as a sentinel by the cradle of His child, to keep watch over 
the desire of all nations. Then we shall see that death, which 
man once thought came from the devil's envy, is only birth out 
of the mortal into the immortal. — Theo. Parker 

Man feels that his personal attributes, his will, his character, 
his conscience, demand conflict for their condition, and without 
the possibility of ill, could never be ; and, when he carries them 
out into the infinite region, to serve as his image of the Highest, 
they bear with them the inseparable shadow of evil, and give it 
place in the universe, as the darkness, in whose absence light 
would want its distinction, the privative, without which the beauty 
of holiness were nothing positive. Hence, expressed or unex- 
pressed, a dualism mingles with all genuine theistic faith. All is 
not divine for it. It has a devil's province somewhere. Face to 
face, as Ebal to Gerizim, the frown of blighted rodk to the smile 
of verdant heights, — hostile as the priest of falsehood to the true 
prophets, — there stand contrasted in this creed, two domains of the 
world, — one surrendered to insurgent powers, the other reserved as 
the nursing ground from which right and truth shall be spread — 
yames Martiiieau^ Restoration of Belief. 

Does not Nature bear evident marks of being planned to rouse 
man to heroic energy, by summoning us to conflict? How often 



THE SITUATION — PAST AND PRESENT. 125 

great virtue is hidden, how often great power slumbers, for want 
of an appropriate sphere, for want of the trials bj which alone 
true greatness can be revealed. 

Make such a world as jou wish, let no appetite or passion ever 
resist God's will, no object of desire ever come in competition 
with duty ; and where would be the resolution, and energy, and 
constancy, and effort, and purity, the trampling under foot of low 
interests, the generous self-surrender, the heroic devotion, all the 
sublimities of virtue, which now throw lustre over man's nature 
and speak of his immortality? — Dr, Charming. 

No state of virtue is complete, however total the virtue, save as 
it is won by a conflict with evil, and fortified by the struggles of a 
resolute and even bitter experience. — Dr. Bushnell. 

The necessary limitations of power and wisdom in all finite 
beings leave open a possibility to evil. — Leibnitz. 

How the Infinite and the Finite, in any form of antagonism, or 
any other relation, can exist together; how infinite power can 
co-exist with finite activity; how infinite wisdom can co-exist 
with finite contingency; how infinite goodness can co-exist with 
finite evil ; how the Infinite can exist in any manner without ex- 
hausting the universe of reality ; — this is the riddle which Infinite 
Wisdom alone can solve. — Trium^ph of Good over Evil. 

He is called the Father of Lights ; the author of every good and 
perfect gift, with whom there is no variableness nor shadow of 
turning; who tempteth no man, but giveth to every man liberally 
and upbraideth not. And yet, by the Prophet Isaiah, He is intro- 
duced saying of Himself, I form light and create darkness; I 
make peace and I create evil ; I, the Lord, do all these things. 
What is the meaning, the plain language of all this, but that the 
Lord delighteth in goodness, and (as the Scripture speaks) evil is 
His strange work.? He intends and pursues the universal good 
of His creation ; and the evil which happens is not permitted for 
its own sake, or through any pleasure in evil, but because it is 
requisite to the greater good pursued. — Philosophy of Necessit^y 
Chas. Bray, 



We saw Thee not when Thou didst come 

To this poor world of sin and death ; 
>?or e'er beheld Thy cottage home 

In that despised Nazareth ; 
But we believe Thj footsteps trod 
This earth, Thou blessed Son of God. 

We did not see Thee lifted high — 

Amid that wild and savage crew ; 
Nor heard Thy meek imploring cry, 

Forgive, they know not what they do; 
Yet we believe the deed was done 
Which shook the earth and veiled the sun. 

We stood not by the empty tomb, 

Where late Thy sacred body lay; 
Nor sat within that upper room. 

Nor met Thee in the open way ; 
But we J^elieve that angels said, 
Why seek the living with the dead? 

We did not mark the chosen few. 

When Thou didst through the clouds ascend, 
First lift to heaven their wondering view. 

Then to the earth all prostrate bend; 
Yet we believe their mortal eyes 
Beheld that journey to the skies. 

And now that Thou dost reign on high, 
And thence Thy waiting people bless ; 

No ray of glory from the sky 

Doth shine upon our wilderness; 

But we believe Thy faithful Word, 

And trust in our redeeming Lord. 

— y. Ham jf ton Gurney^ 18^8, 



CHAPTER IV. 



GOD IN CHEIST — A NECESSITY, POSSIBLE AND PROBABLE. 

The Desire of all Nations shall come. — Hag, ii: y. 

His Name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The Mighty 
God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. — Isa. ix: 6. 

And the Word became Flesh, and tabernacled among us, and 
we beheld His Glorj — Glory as of an Only Begotten from a 
Father, full of Grace and Truth. — John i: 14. 

To this end have I been born, and to this end have I come into 
the w^orld, that I shall bear v^itness to the truth. — yokn xviii: ^y. 

My Lord and My God. — John xx: 28. 

I and the Father are One. — John x: 30. 

He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.— yj?///^ xiv: 9. 

Him God raised up the third day, and gave Him to be made 
manifest, not to all the people, but unto witnesses that were chosen 
before of God, even to us, who did eat and drink with Him after 
He rose from the dead. — Acts x: 41. 

For we did not follow cunningly devised fables, when we made 
known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
but we were eye-witnesses of His Majesty. For He received from 
God the Father — honor and glory, when there came such a voice to 
Him from the excellent glory : — This is my Beloved Son in whom 
I am well pleased ; and this voice we ourselves heard come out of 
heaven, when we were with Him on the holy mount. — II Pet, i: 16, 

Who is the Image of God. — // Cor, iv: 4, 
God vras in Christ. — // Cor. v : ig. 



128 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

Who being in the Form of God, did not deem it robbery to be 
on equality with God, etc. — Phil, ii: 6-11. 

Looking for the blessed hope and the epiphany of the Glory of 
the Great God, and our Savior. — Titus ii: /j. 

Who is the Image of the invisible God, etc. — Col. i: ij-20. 

For in Him dwelleth all the pleroma of the God-head bodily. — 
Col. ii: g. 

He who was manifested in the Flesh. — / Tim. Hi: 16. 

Who being the effulgence of His Glory, and the Stamp of His 
Substance, and sustaining all things by the utterance of His 
Power, etc. — Heb. i: j. 

Jesus Christ — The Righteous. — / ^o/m ii: i. 

The Same is the True God, and Eternal Life. — / J^okn v: 20. 

Who is over all — God blessed Forever. — Rom. ix: ^. 

I am Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First 
and the Last. — Rev. xxH: 13. 

For of Him, and through Him, and unto Him are all 
things: to Whom be the glory forever. Amen. — Ro7n. 
xi: 36. 

Was Jesus of Nazareth the manifestation of God 
in the Flesh — very God thus manifest, — the highest 
manifestation of Him possible on earth to men? — all 
godly men, to the extent of their spiritual likeness, 
are manifestations of Him; or, was He only a man, 
though the most extraordinary, born and conditioned 
as other men; officially as was Moses, — but a human 

/jLBdirrj^ Qeov uai dv^pc^itGov? ^ — to the utmost, but an 

angelic messenger incarnate, in the form of, but of a 
higher grade than man, — a super-human, intermediate, 
^nd diyine, though not the Supremely Divine One, a 

I. I Timothy ii:5. 



GOD MANIFEST IN CHRIST. 129 

created and subordinate being, more than man, bnt 
less than God? 

These are the interrogations to which satisfactory 
responses must be given, before those constitutionally 
inclined, or educated to question and to doubt, will 
admit the authoritativeness of the teachings of the 
Nazarene, with the dogmas of His apostles — evolved 
from them, to rule the lives of men. 

If Jesus was not what He declared He was, and so 
many witnesses averred; then Christian believers are, 
of all men, the most deluded, and therefore most mis- 
erable. Jesus, if only a man, though honest and 
sincere in His professions, may have been deluded 
Himself, as transcendent human characters have been 
before Him, — attempting to bring to light celestial 
realities — beyond the cognizance and the grasp of 
their uninspired human reason. If but an Archangel 
incarnate, then He was not invested with all power in 
Heaven and on earth, with which, the historian has 
noted, — that He avowed, He was clad. Matt xxviii: 
18. Then, of course, all His disciples have been de- 
luded, and the race is as much as ever at sea, upon 
those momentous inquiries respecting God, men's duties 
and relations to Him, and their destiny in the world to 
come.' The apostolic speakers and writers — subse- 
quent to His resurrection, it is evident, were as unques- 

I. Everything that is precious to humanity perishes, if we 
regard Jesus simply as God. Everything that is precious in 
the personal love of God for man perishes, if we regard Him 

simply as created man For us, the Absolute Avas born 

at Bethlehem, the Perfect died on Calvary, the Omnipotent rose 
at Easter, the Infinite ascended from Bethany, and the Eternal 
came down at Pentecost. — jRev. T. W. Foxvle. 

K 



130 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

tioning believers in the Deity of Jesus, as they were in 
their own personality. True, it is evident that before His 
crucifixion, with the exception of Peter ' perhaps, none of 
them, — though they had recognized a super-humanity, 
had come to a complete realization of His Godhead. 
They were not prepared to grasp at once such grand 
perception. Apprehension, — realization of a celestial 
reality is not instantaneous. Perhaps the disciples 
would have been disabled for effectual service, if they 
had. Therefore, he who accepts the New Testament 
record as substantially veritable, — even admitting that 
some errors did creep by transmission into the original 
text, and that correct renderings have not always been 
given in our English vernacular, must grant, if they 
cannot assent to the affirmations respecting His God- 
hood, that, in the minds of these apostolic speakers 
and writers, there was no question of such Divinity. 
No exegesis, no torture of language, has ever been 
able to wrench out of it, the positive averment, the 
constant assumption, and the continuous implication, 
that He was very God thus manifest. Thus much is 
evident, if we assume the Scriptures of the New 
Testament to be veritable records, and if the original 
language in its etymological, literal, and commonly 
received import is apprehended. 

There are six attestations to the Deity of Jesus, — 
the fifth of John specifying four of them. The Old 
Testament Scriptures — finding the complete realiza- 
tion of prediction and delineation alone in Him; John 
the Baptist; the Heavenly Voice at His Baptism, on 
His Transfiguration, and when He was once praying; 

I. Matt, xiv: 33; xvi: 16. 



GOD MANIFEST IN CHRIST. 131 

John xn:28, He Himself — and His own works; and 
His apostles most impressively revealed that He was 
the Promised One, — the Lamb of God, who would in 
the mysterious way bear the sins of the world. Then, 
iJiere is what has been called the four-fold argument 
of the old Divines: — the attributes of God; the acts 
of God; the homage rendered to God; and the names 
of God' are ascribed to Him. It is only when men 
set up their finite, and therefore fallible reason as 
an infallible tribunal, to which the declarations of 
Scripture must be brought to test; that they stumble 
and reject. And Christian believers, when they have 
come to distrust on this subject, will always discern, 
on searching examination, that they have been setting 
up their individual reason — rude or cultured, not rea- 
son universal — the common judgment of men, as the 
ultimate appeal. The reason of each individual— 
spiritually enlightened, for itself, and for itself alone, 
is the candle of the Lord in his soul, but it is not an 
universal light for all others; it is not an originating 
— only a verifying faculty, assenting to, or rejecting 
that which has come from higher sources, — the highest 
in each soul thus enlightened, broadened, symmetrized 
by the universal, — may be the ultimate appeal on sub- 
jects within its province, and, when the court of last 

I. The older theologians, both Catholic and Evangelical, proved 
the divinity of the Savior in a direct way from the 7niracles per- 
formed by Him; from the prophecies and types fulfilled in Him; 
from the divine names which He bears; from the divine ivorks 
which He performed ; and from the divine honors which He claims, 
and which are fully accorded to Him by His apostles and the 
whole Christian Church to this day. — Person of Christy Schaff, 



132 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

resort — revelation from above, is denied, but for no 
others. 

Men still cavil, and the present generation is as 
restless and unsatisfied as any of its predecessors. 
Was He only a man, — the highest manifestation yet 
known of the human; or was He both human and 
Deific? Speculatists in science, ethics, or religion, 
who will not recognize in Him, at the uttermost, more 
than a super-humanity, below and subordinate to the 
Godhead, and a Creature, freely admit that He has 
revolutionized the world since He lived in it. They 
admit that He was the grandest, the noblest, the purest 
of the race, — the Flower of Humanity. Some of them 
further admit, that He was not only super-human, but 
super-angelic, — divine in a subordinate sense, not 
Deific, — less than God, though more than man, — not 
the "pleroma of the Godhead bodily." Assuming 
that the Logos of the Fourth Gospel was Jesus, the 
writer thereof declares: '^In the Beginning was the 
Word; the Word was with God, and the Word was 
God." But appellants to human reason deny that such 
a manifestation of the Infinite is possible, — that Per- 
sonality in God would be a limitation. The person- 
ality of a body, — if it can be said it has any, — only as 
to its distinguishing features, must be distinguished 
from that of a soul; finite personality — from infinite 
personality. They assume, that the alleged miracles 
by Him are antecedently incredible, — or labor to show, 
if wrought, that they were but the legitimate outcome 
of natural agencies; or that the alleged witnesses there- 
of were deluded visually or mentally; that they could 
not endure the test of scientific investigation, — these 



GOD MANIFEST IN CHRIST. 133 

wonders having been wrought, as they affirm, or hav- 
ing taken place in ignorant times, and in presence of 
a credulous people, — never in enlightened periods, and 
before intelligent and scrutinizing witnesses. ' The 
Jewish, specially the Galilean rabble were, doubtless, 
as credulous as the canaille of any nation, but cre- 
dulity, as characteristic, could not be properly affirmed 
of Jews in general, — not at all of their highest digni- 
taries, — being an Old Testament enlightened people, 
— unquestioning believers in miracles, but very big- 
oted, and never disposed to give credence to the 
religious pretensions of others, in or outside of their 
creed, tribe or clan, especially if they could not pro- 
duce a veritable "Thus saith the Lord" to back their 

I. The vision theory is contradicted by the condition of our 
Lord's disciples at the moinent of His death, by the nature of the 
manifestations themselves — even though they were no more than 
pictures of the fancy, — by the after life of the church, and by dif- 
ferent subordinate circumstances, such as their duration, the num- 
bers who witnessed thein at the same instant, the place where they 
occurred, and their cessation when they might have been expected 
to increase. — The Resurrection of Our Lord^ Wni. Milligan. 

Matthew was an experienced and intelligent observer of events 
passing before him, ..... must have been familiar with a 
great variety of forms of fraud, iinposture, cunning and deception, 
and must have become habitually distrustful, scrutinizing, and 
cautious ; and of course, much less likely to have been deceived 
in regard to many of the facts in our Lord's ministry, extraordi- 
nary as they were, which fell under his observation. 

The credit due to the testimony of witnesses depends upon, 
firstly, their honesty ; secondly, their ability ; thirdly, their num- 
ber and the consistency of their testimony; fourthly, the con- 
formity of their testimony with experience ; and fifthly, the coin- 
cidence of their testimony with collateral circumstances. — Prof. 
S, Greenleaf . 



134 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

pretensions, — attested by some preter-rational token 
of their Divine commission — to add to or to subtract 
from what had come down to them from " Moses and 
the Prophets." 

If distrust is valid and admissible against historical 
affirmations, — attested by many eye-witnesses, for 
Jesus was seen after His resurrection, it is reckoned, 
on eleven different occasions for forty days, at various 
hours during the day, by more than five hundred per- 
sons atone time; then there can be no relying trust 
in human testimony, and all history, indeed, is unreli- 
able. Certain women saw Him on their way from the 
sepulchre; Mary Magdalene saw Him at the sepulchre; 
Peter saw Him; Cleopas and His companion — probably 
Luke himself, on their way to Emmaus, saw Him; ten 
apostles, Thomas being absent, saw Him; eleven apos- 
tles, Thomas being present, saw Him; seven disciples 
at the Lake saw Him, John xxi:2j more than five 
hundred at one time saw Him; James saw Him, as 
did all the apostles, at His ascension; and Saul of 
Tarsus saw Him on his way to Damascus.' Neverthe- 
less, the stock resort of unbelievers is still — the assump- 

I. The women in a company; the two disciples on the way to 
Emmaus ; the apostles assembled without the doubting Thomas ; 
the same apostles assembled with Thomas; the five hundred 
brethren ; the seven apostles by the Sea of Tiberias ; the eleven 
who were present at the ascension ; Mary Magdalene, Peter, James, 
— each of these last alone, — how different are the groups which 
witnessed the stupendous fact! — Milligaii. 

It is noticeable, that of the ten meetings with one or more of 
the disciples, which we have record oi^Jive occurred on the resur- 
rection day ; but during the remaining time, Jesus seems to have 
remained for the most part invisible. — Gospel of the Resurrection^ 
y. M, Whiton. 



GOD MANIFEST IN CHRIST. 135 

tion that such incarnation is impossible or improbable, 
whatever may be the testimony thereto. 

"The whole argument for Christianity," says the 
anonymous author of the elaborate English volumes 
entitled "Supernatural Revelation," "turns upon the 
necessity for such a revelation, and the consequent 
probability that it would be made." The possibility of 
the Incarnation, — the power of the Almighty thus to in- 
carnate and manifest Himself, this author does not deny. 

Such being the last skeptical issue, let it be con- 
fronted by the inquiry: — Was there not, has there not 
been, in the universal aspiration of men, such a " neces- 
sity"? and is there not a "probability" that such an 
aspiration would find realization at some time in the 
world's history? Was not such epiphany of God in 
humanity — not merely probable, but, indeed, a very 
probable' event, the human situation considered? If 

I. Probability .... is not only the usual guide of men, 
but is enough to bind the judgment and conscience even in grav- 
est matters ; and, it is a very safe and profitable thing for one 
to do, to assume and act upon the truth of both Theism and 
Christianity. — Dr, E, F. Burr. 

In all human transactions, the highest degree of assurance to 
v^hich vs^e can arrive, short of the evidence of our own senses, is 
that of probability. — Prof. S. Greenleaf. 

There is an enormous a ^priori probability attached to every 
straightforward statement made by apparently honest men. — T, 
W. Fovjle. 

The whole analogy of nature removes all imagined presump- 
tion against the general notion of a Mediator between God and 
man. For we find all living creatures are brought into the world, 
and their life in infancy is preserved, by the instrumentality and 
mediation of others. So that the visible government, which God 
exercises over the world, is by the instrumentality and mediation 
of others. — Butler'' s Analogy. 



136 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

human necessities and aspirations bode a final satis- 
faction; then, it was evident that, at some period in 
the development of humanity, He who had been uni- 
versally aspired for, as well as pledged to appear, 
would come. The cry was then, as now: 

Come, for Creation groans, 

Impatient of thy stay ; 
Worn out with these long years of ill, — 

These ages of delay. 

How could God satisfactorily manifest Himself? 
How did He do it, — prior to the advent of Jesus? As 
it is not possible for the Finite to confront the Infi- 
nite, face to face, as man confronts his fellow, — 'no 
man has seen God at any time, — no man can see Him 
physically or spiritually, — in His grandeur or perfec- 
tion, — No man has ever seen himself thus. — All pos- ^ 
sible physical apprehension of God by man must be 
through his physical senses. According to Scripture, 
as well as to the conclusion of reason. He is, and must 
be, a Spirit, a Person, a Divine Father. This being 
true, if men were not satisfied with the external and 
internal manifestations of Him they previously had, 
they could not have any further adequate representa- 
tion of Him such as they demanded, save through a 
human form. ' 

I. The Incarnation is nothing else than the practical material 
manifestation of the human nature of God. God did not become 
man for His own sake; the need, the want of man, . . . was 
the cause of the Incarnation. God became man out of mercy; 
thus, He was in Himself already a human God before He became 
an actual man; for human want, human misery, went to His 
heart. The Incarnation was a tear of the Divine compassion, and 



GOD MANIFEST IN CHRIST. 137 

Now, a revelation of God to man, — of His spiritual 
character, must be only from His Spirit, or out of His 
creations, to man's spirit, not at all from His Spirit, 
or His spiritual or material work to man's material, — 
sensuous, psychical nature, for that is not conceivably 
possible, so far as matter is known. 

" There are but two conceivable ways of the mani- 
festation of God to men. Either, man must ascend 

hence it was only the visible advent of a Being having human 

feelings, and therefore essentially human The idea of 

the Incarnation is nothing more than the human form of a God, 
who already in His nature, in the profoundest depths of His soul, 
is a merciful and therefore a human God. 

If the personal God has a true sympathy with distress. He must 
Himself suffer distress ; only in His suffering lies the assurance of 
His reality, only on this depends the impressiveness of the Incar- 
nation. To see God does not satisfy feeling; the eyes give no 
sufficient guarantee. The truth of vision is confirmed only by 
touch. — Feuerhach. 

This Wonderful Person was enabled in some mysterious man- 
ner to embrace within His personality our whole nature, so as to 
be spiritually the germ of a new creation, even as Adam was 
naturally of the old ; and this germ nature was really one with 
ours, so that it could feel and take the burden of our sinfulness, 
and bear it away ; yea, so one, that we can enter into communion 
with it, even as it entered into communion with us, and stands in 
that new nature pure and reconciled before God. — Jas. Moorhouse. 

There is evidently no more unreasonableness in believing the 
possibility of the Incarnation, than in believing the union of the 
soul and body, or any other certain truth, which, we plainly see, 
implies no contradiction in the thing itself ; at the same time, that 
we are sensible, we cannot discover the manner how it is effected. 
— Dr. Sain'l Clarke. 

All we can ever know of the divine must be through the hu- 
man We can come no nearer to God than man. We 

can approach Him only through perfected humanity, and all we 



138 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

up to God, or God must descend to man. Either, the 
finite mind must rise up to the Infinite, or the Infinite 
must bring Himself, so far as He can be known, within 
the sphere of the finite, and come under human lim- 
itation, so far as is consistent with His nature. Now, 
the finite cannot ascend up to the Infinite; there can 
be no merging of the creature into the Creator. . . 
. . There can be but one way in which God, in any 
sense, can be known to the reason of man: that way 
must be the descent of God to man, — coming to man 
as far as suitable under human limitations within the 
sphere of human thought, and accommodated to the 
infant capacities of His creatures." — Chas. E, Lord. 

can ever add to our knowledge of His nature — will be derived from 
successive development of our own. We shall see Him as the 
pure in heart see Him, — in the mirror of their purity, in perfect 
emancipation from self, in ever-growing holiness, in ever-expand- 
ing love. — Hedge. 

He must be the special though finite manifestation of the infi- 
nite God. That is. He must be made in God's image, and endowed 
with the various qualities, physical, mental, and spiritual of His 
Maker. 

Incarnation is but a term to express the manifestation of the 
Infinite in the finite, of the Absolute in the conditioned, of the 
Ideal in the real ; that is, of God in nature. . . . The Infinite 
being the source of all things, wherever we find a finite we find 
an Incarnation. — The Keys of the Creeds. 

If, now, the human person will express more of God than the 
whole created universe beside, . . . and if a motive possess- 
ing as great consequence as the creation of the world, invites Him 
to do it, is it any more extravagant to believe, that the Word will 
become flesh, than that the Word has become, or produced in 
time, a material universe.^ . . . As God has produced Him- 
self in all the other finite forms of being, so now He should 
appear in the human, — Dr, BushnelL 



GOD MANIFEST IN CHRIST. 139 

There are four modes by which, it is conceived, 
God's Spirit may reveal Himself to man's spirit: 

1. By the direct or immediate, from the Divine 
soul to the human, — no material medium intervening. 
Assuming that God the Father is, nothing could be 
more probable than that -this Being would thus hold 
converse with His benighted children, as He did at 
the Creation, as is alleged. It was a palpable fact, 
perhaps the most palpable in the history of the He- 
brews, that the Divine Spirit did thus communicate to 
select human souls, as He, in fact, does now. From 
earliest recorded history, there have been unremitted 
demonstrations of this communion of the Infinite with 
the Finite. The religiously disinclined, or those who 
have not had any experience of it, are incredulous. 
When the carnal predominates over the spiritual, bes- 
tializes or represses it, it cannot be en rapport with 
God. God is not in their thoughts. They have no 
aspirations for Him, or — the spiritual has been im- 
peded, repressed or overborne by carnality. They will 
not open their hearts to receive Him. A throb from 
His infinite mind or heart could and would pulsate 
through their repressed or debased souls, if they were 
not almost, or altogether insulated from Him. 

2. God may reveal Himself indirectly or mediately, 
— His will. His purposes. His intellectual or spiritual 
character, — through His work, material or immaterial, 
in historical events, in individual experiences. His- 
tory — general or particular, national or individual, 
may be properly said to be exponential of the voice of 
God, His voice itself, if we believe He is the prime 
and the all potential Factor in history. 



140 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

3. God may reveal Himself directly to individuals, 
and through them, indirectly to the human family at 
large, as He did to the Hebrews. 

4. He might manifest Himself directly to men, in 
the assumption of a human form, even gestated by an 
earthly mother, — to make it more manifest through the 
various stages of physical and mental development, con- 
front squarely at maturity, — eye to eye, face to face, 
His creature, speak to, be spoken to by him, be hun- 
gry, thirsty, weary, depressed and sad to the extreme, 
in order to be able to sympathize with the brother 
man to the uttermost, discourse in such a manner 
upon such themes, and work such marvels in attesta- 
tion of His divine character and of His mission, as 
never were heard or witnessed from a man before, be 
present to rejoice at the marriage of men, and to weep 
at their graves, be tried and tempted by the Spiritual 
Adversary, as is possible for men ever to be tried, be 
from the cradle to the grave a perfect Exemplar to 
His human brother. 

Is such theophany impossible? Is it improbable? 
Is it not what might be expected from such a God, and 
in such an exigency of His creature's history? Would 
not an earthly parent transform himself into an angel 
of light, if possible and necessary, to save his erring 
child? 

But, exclaims the objector, can the Infinite be 
cribbed in the Finite? Cannot the Infinite mind, 
though thus constrained, and in such limitations ade- 
quately reveal Himself to His creature? He could 
never fully manifest Himself, — since there would not 
be capacity in the creature to receive. But why not, 



GOD MANIFEST IN CHRIST. 141 

in such finite condition, for the adequate purposes? 
Is not a manifestation of the Infinite in the Finite 
possible, — not of His illimitation in nature, being or 
space, — of course, but in degree, — of His intellectu- 
ality, spirituality, — His various attributes? 

"Infinity is not God, but only the mode of His 
existence, viz., — the extent or degree of His existence. 
. . . . If we cannot know God in His degree or 
measurement, we may still know Him, which is of far 
greater importance, in His truth or essence."' 

"We cannot, indeed, comprehend the infinite; nei- 
ther can we the finite A single ray let in 

through a dark chamber is enough to teach the nature 
of light. May we not learn the nature of Infinite 
Love from a single beam in the darkness?" ^ 

Potency, according to human apprehension, is rather 
in concentration than in diffusion. A watch upon a 
signet-ring — to the human, is a greater triumph of 
mechanism than a clock upon a huge cathedral. Is 
God not as manifest in a busy brain as in the material 
heavens? in the tiniest insect^ invisible to the naked 

1. Thos. C. Upham. 

2. Newman Smyth. 

3. The entomologist, Pierre Lyonnet, devoted many years to 
the study of a caterpillar which infests the willow tree. The 
number of muscles alone, all described and figured, is 4,041. 
The book describing and figuring it is a quarto volume of more 
than six hundred pages, adorned with eighteen plates. 

Some organisms are eighty or one hundred and twenty thou- 
sandths of an inch in diameter There are beings of 

minuteness — which, though discoverable by science, is inconceiv- 
able by the mind. From these founts of life — which may exist 
and work, without cell-wall or center, in less than every portion 



142 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

eye, as in a megatlierinm? in the heart of the contrite 
on earth, while He is with the glorified in Heaven?' 
What, then, is to hinder the manifestation of God 
in a human organization for a third of a century, or 
even for eternity, if He will it, and there is necessity 
therefor, while He is omnipresent elsewhere? It must 
be, will be, of course, but a mere finite manifestation 
of the Infinite, i. e., of His intellectuality, — His spir- 
ituality, such as is possible to be apprehended by the 
Finite, if we know that the disembodied mind of a 
finite — human organization is not infinite itself, — to 
the degree of its capacity. Is not the Infinite Omni- 
present? Is He not on earth, as in heaven? Is He 
not, as revealed, nigh the heart of the Christian 
believer, while, at the same time, He is nigh the heart 
of every saint in Heaven? Is not Jesus said to be in 
the heart of His disciples, "the hope of glory," and 

of five hundredth part of an inch, in our body — proceea the 
threads of nerves, of arteries, of muscle, of bone, and all the mech- 
anism of our system. Not only does the mystic play weave fibre 
round fibre spirally, the whole complexity of tissue is woven to- 
gether into a conscious responsible being able to know God, to 
glorifv God, and enjoy Him forever. — The Mysteries of Miracles. 

I. Not as Divine only, but as human. He was perfected. He 
did not return, when He rose, to absolute Divinity ; He is not sim- 
ply spirit now; nor is He possessed of only an angelic nature. 

As man, He rose, ascended into Heaven, sat down 

upon His throne, — as man, with our human nature not less real 
and true than ever, because it has been perfected as man, — with an 
eye to look in love upon His own ; with a voice to speak to them 
in its old tender tones ; with a hand to lay upon the heads of chil- 
dren taken away from the sorrowing parents to His own gentle 
presence. — Milligan, 



GOD MANIFEST IN CHKIST. 143 

is He not supposed to be, at the same time, at the 
right hand of His Father? The human imagination 
wings its flight beyond the stars, and the human rea- 
son undertakes to grapple with the deepest mysteries, 
— ^the brain never ceasing, at the same moment, to be 
active and busy with tlie manipulations of the ever 
present mind. Impossible! Is anything impossible 
with Him? By reason, analogy, and experience,* is 
such epiphany impossible? Are not all material cre- 
ations partial incarnations of Him, as to power, skill, 
wisdom, and merciful design? — very feeble, inade- 
quate, it is true; still, manifestations. All things con- 
sidered, it is — (is it not?) of the highest probability, 
that He would thus manifest Himself, — specially, with 
respect to His spiritual nature, whether or not He was 
a Father, — as men hope and aspire. 

But demurs another: Jesus died. Can God die? 
The Flesh died upon the Cross, as we understand it, 
notwithstanding the dicta otherwise of some theolo- 
gians, and the repulsive license of some hymns. 
There was a temporary dissolution or suspension of 
the union between the body, — the soul and the spirit. 
The dead body terrestrial, or its spiritual analogue, 
appeared, and bore the same tragic wounds, or their 
celestial counterpart, in palpable exhibition to the 
doubting Thomas. But most probable, and consonant 
to reason, the facts and circumstances stated, the dead 
body spiritualized was revivified. Exclaimed Jesus: 
'See My hands and My feet, that it is I, Myself: 
handle Me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and 
hones, a^e see Me having. And saying this, He 
shewed His hands and His feet Luke xxiv:39, 40. 



144 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

Whatever skeptic undertakes to run against such a 
rock of attestation, must himself be triturated. By- 
gradual or instantaneous transformation, in the sep- 
ulchre, before or at the Ascension, ' the terrestrial 
passed to the celestial. Like spiritual transformation 
did take place on the Mount of Transfiguration. 0th- . 
erwise, but on such supposition, how could that body- 
be presented at one time, by the Incarnate One to 
Thomas and other disciples, as the manifested Terres- 

I. No evidence can be adduced in support of the view, that 
the change produced upon the body of our Lord was gradual^ — 
that it began at His resurrection, went on in a progressive course 
during the forty days that elapsed between the Resurrection and 
the Ascension, and was only completed at the latter. Some of the 
most marvellous appearances of the Risen Savior, — those remov- 
ing Him furthest from the condition of ordinary humanity, belong 
to the very day of His resurrection. 

At some moment or another of those mysterious hours, during 
which He lay in the tomb in the garden, a great change took 
place ; the " natural " became a ^' spiritual " body ; what was sown 
in *' corruption," in this corruptible and mortal flesh, " was raised 
in incorruption" ; what was sown in ^'weakness" was raised in 
"power." 

We are told by physicists, that in the instant or half instant 
needed to flash the electric spark from Europe to America, the 
molecules not only of three thousand miles of wire, but of the 
sheathing in which the wire is enclosed, and of the water in its 
immediate neighborhood, have either changed their place, or been 
aflected. 

The transition from one great stage of being to another, from 
unconsciousness to consciousness, from death to life, must always 
be sudden. There may be long preparation ; the elements may be 
long ripening for what is to come ; but, when the hour does come, 
it must be with the rapidity of an electric stroke ; the gulf between 
the past and the present must be crossed at one bound. — Milligaii^ 
The Resurrection. 



GOD MANIFEST IN CHRIST. 145 

trial; appear at another, suddenly in rooms whose doors 
were closed; then as suddenly vanish from sight; and 
then ultimately ascend visibly into the heavens? 

The mysterious union of the Divine-Human with 
the Flesh was sundered in that tragic of tragical 
moments, and in that dissolution was the death, so 
called, of the Flesh. He died physically, psychically 
as a man. His soul and spirit were deathless, as are 
the sundered soul and spirit of every man. The psy- 
chical life ceased. He yielded up the spirit. The 
original language expresses simply, solely, a physical, 
psychical death. He expired, — " breathed His last," 

dcprJHB TO Ttvevjua, e^STtvevde. TtapedaoKS to Ttvsv/ia. ^ 

As there is no break for an instant, in the continuity 
of a human soul's existence, no suspension for a mo- 
ment of its activities in dissolution; surely, there was 
none of the Divine in this rupture.^ 

1. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. 

All the distinguished New England theologians, such as Hop- 
kins, Edwards the younger, Dwight, Emmons, Woods, and others, 
limit the suiFerings of Christ to His human nature. — Geo. jB. NoyeSy 
Preface to Collection of Theo. Essays. 

2. We have indications of similar suspension of vitality in the 
sleep of plants and animals, and in hibernation. Infusoria have 
been dried and resuscitated a number of times without losing 
their vitality, and the hydra and other polyps may be cut Into an 
indefinite number of pieces, and yet live. — Jos. H. Wythe. 

Sir Kenelm Digby relates, that in Padua, he visited the labora- 
tory of a famous physician, and was there shown a small pile of 
fine ashes under a glass. On the application of a gentle heat, it 
arose, and assumed the shape of its original flower, all its parts 
being perfectly distinct in form and well defined in character. 
During the application of the heat, the spectral plant preserved 
its delicate outline ; but on withdrawal of the heat, it became dust 
again . — FrotUngham, 



146 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

But how conld the Flesh, — the body of Jesus, ques- 
tions another, escape the common corruption, — even 
for the brief period it was first entombed, and what 
became of it in the final sloughing off of it for the 
body celestial? It surely did not remain in the sepul- 
chre. As to the final disposal of the body terrestrial, 
it may have been laid aside in a secret place, as was 
that of Moses, that it might not be idolized, and — 
resolved again into primal dust. How could this ter- 
restrial, once lifeless, resume psychical life, and tread 
Jerusalem and Galilee again, — eat in presence of the 
disciples, — appear many times with the material and 
• the continuous semblance, at least, of veritable flesh 
and bone, — the substitution of the word '^ bones'^ tor 
the usually associated word ''blood'' is notable, — with 
pierced side and perforated hands, open to handling 
and inspection? Assure, that to that material form, — 
having become lifeless, life returned, there will be no 
skandalon in the averment, that He tabernacled in it, 
ate, drank, and slept; that He with it appeared sud- 
denly in closed rooms, and on the highways, and as 
suddenly disappeared, — assuming and resuming the 
body celestial, or the terrestrial body celestialized, as 
the occasion demanded, and as is possible for Omnip- 
otence. The reality of the resurrection involves and 
guarantees the solution of every difficulty pertaining 
to it. 

Saul of Tarsus was suddenly transformed, as have 
been multitudes since. " Why should it be thought a 
thing incredible with you," Paul most pertinently 
urged, "that God should raise the dead?" 

" Facts of the most extraordinary nature have always 



GOD MANIFEST IN CHKIST. 147 

been, and will always be received on solitary attesta- 
tion; and if so, it makes no logical difference whether 
they be called ^objective' or 'subjective.' " 

" A man has faculties for apprehending what passes 
within him, as well as what passes without; nor do we 
know any ground for trusting the latter, which does 
not hold equally good for the former." ' 

Is it more difficult to resuscitate a dead body, than to 
originally create it? Enoch, it is declared, was not, for 
God took him, doubtless, as it is averred He took 
Elijah. It was possible, assuredly, for all things are 
possible with God. Elisha witnessed the material or 
spiritual ascension of his predecessor. The fifty sons 
of the prophets took note of his disappearance, if they 
did not catch a glimpse of the ascension. The infer- 
ence from Scripture is, that bodies celestial are dis- 
cernible by the terrestrial, or the celestialized eye. 
Lazarus, with his revivified body, came out of the 
sepulchre. Such revivification is possible, and not 
improbable, considering the occasion, the emergency, 
the presence, and the imperative behest of the Son 
of God. Many Jews beheld the scene. The fact was 
admitted by believers and unbelievers. If Jews had 
disputed the alleged fact, would it not have been 
recorded? Whether He did or not come out of the 
sepulchre revivified, is a question of testimony. The 
dead, — the just and the unjust, it is declared, with 
bodies psychical or spiritual, shall be reanimate at the 
inspiring summons, ''^r^^P<^^^- Who refuses to believe 
in the possibility, — the probability of such reanima- 
tion? How can a soul be born again? Soul-regener- 
I. James Martineau* 



148 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

ation demands a greater draft upon belief than bodily- 
resuscitation. 'The wind bloweth where it listeth, 
and thou hearest the sound thereof, but knowest not 
whence it cometh and whither it goeth: so is every 
one who is born of the Spirit.' Nicodemus inquired 
dubitably, — "How can these things be?" John Hi: 
8, 9, Still: They Be. We may not be able to eluci- 
date the "How,'' but we cannot disbelieve their Being. 
We see, and feel, and experience, — we cannot explain. 
How do we exist? Why do we trust in human testi- 
mony outside of personal cognition ? How can thought 
be transmitted to the ends of the earth? — through the 
past ages? Let us know our limitations, be patient in 
our ignorance, and bide till that further light which is 
needed comes. 

The Material Universe, then, all living or dead mat- 
ter is a manifestation of God. The prime man was a 
manifestation of God in the Flesh. But, humanity 
failed to be attracted to its Maker by these impersonal 
exhibitions of Him in the Heavens and the Earth, by 
those brighter, — anthropomorphic, those personal ones 
in men, — beings, besides animal instincts and passions, 
with intellect, will, sensibility, akin to those of the 
Deity Himself. It failed, moreover, to be thus at- 
tracted to Him, by those higher incarnations, men, 
specially and extraordinarily endowed, who so resem- 
bled Him, that they were said to walk with Him, were 
after His heart, were God-inspired, commissioned to 
speak to their generation, and through it to all suc- 
ceeding ones, as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. 
If God is a Spirit, a Person, a Father, with intellect, 
will, emotion, the clearest revelation possible of Him 



GOD MANIFEST IN CHRIST. 149 

to humanity, — of Keason to reason, of Will to will, of 
Conscience to conscience, of Love to love, of all Attri- 
butes and Emotions to their corresponding andl analo- 
gous like in men, would be, through a Being in human 
form, in One, who was perfect in His material, mental, 
and moral organization, — a tried, but sinless One, of 
untiring love, and unwearied patience; of infinite 
compassion, and ceaseless tenderness; whose earthly 
speech, actions, and life would, necessarily, be limited 
by the conditions of His humanity; yet, not so as to 
incapacitate Him to respond satisfactorily and ade- 
quately to all the wants of the human soul. Matter, 
in its stupendous and gorgeous creations, did not ade- 
quately represent Him; the common race did not; 
extraordinary men, with brain large and symmetrically 
developed, of fine culture, with imposing physical 
presence, in whom the natural virtues blossomed to 
their possible perfection, did not; nor did those who 
walked with Him, and whom He specially honored 
with His confidence in the revelation of His attributes, 
and of His will; for they, after all, were men with 
passions like those of their kind, and the frailty of 
nature would reveal itself. Humanity, keen in its 
perceptions, merciless in its judgments, discerned their 
infirmities, and the antagonism, at times, between pre- 
cept and practice; rejected the divine message from 
fallible lips. It cried to God for a perfect representa- 
tion of Him, as could be apprehended by it, not only 
the mightiest intellectually, spiritually, so far as pos- 
sible in a human form; but One perfect in his moral 
organization; to all extremity tried, but a sinless One; 
in whom it could find no fault. God responded to the 



150 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

universal cry and want, and sent His only beloved 
Son, "full o£ Grace and Truth," — the pleroma of 
moral and intellectual excellence, — Son of Man in the 
human relation, — Son of God in the Divine. Did not 
such a manifestation of Him become a necessity? and 
was it not met, so far as possible in a human organi- 
zation, in Jesus of Nazareth? Men of His time, His 
Hebrew brethren looking for Him, rejected Him, as 
multitudes would now, should He thus re-appear. Is 
a superior manifestation of Deity needed? May it be 
looked for? Would men believe, though He descend 
again upon the earth, — the manifest God, crowned 
with the aureola of the celestial light wherein He 
dwelt? If they would not believe in the presence of 
His stupendous deeds, and momentous speech for these 
eighteen centuries, what should make them believe, if 
He should come again, with the retinue of angels in 
the blaze of these last days? It would be, it is appre- 
hended, as at the first. Some would believe, others 
doubt, and, as succeeding ages rolled on, men would 
cavil, as they have. Even at that amazing apocalypse, 
— ^just as He wa.s about to ascend, "some" of the 
eleven disciples, *^ doubted." The root of the skep- 
ticism, — the difficulty of apprehension, is not always 
in the understanding; it is oftener in the inimical 
heart, and the insubordinate will. The intellectual 
perception and conclusion may be clear and unhesi- 
tant, while the assent of the affections and the will 
may be reluctant, or withheld. Rom, x:9, 10. If 
truth is offensive or repulsive to them, though convic- 
tion has seized the understanding, it will be rejected, 
so that the soul in the citadel of its being, — in its 



GOD MANIFEST IN CHRIST. 151 

entirety, will not be cleansed, illuminated, guided, 
inspired by it. 

At tlie Crucifixion, the indiscriminate and skeptical 
rabble, as they passed by the tragic scene, — scene for 
which a hundred generations had gone their weary 
way, wagged their heads in derision at Him, — exclaim- 
ing, — Save Thyself, and come down from the Cross. 

Likewise, also, the chief priests, with the scribes, nv oc; 
said among themselves: _H6 saved others; Himself 
He can not save, Mark xv: SI, — '"AXXov; edaodev, 
kavTov ov dvvarai dc^dai, — the typical cry of dark- 
minded unbelievers in all generations. Ah! these 
chief priests and scribes admitted in their mockery, 
that, He had saved others. He could not save Him- 
self \ Himself He would not save. For this end 
He came into the world. This they knew, for He 
had often so declared in their presence; but also, in 
conjunction, that He would rise again. When He did 
rise, as He pledged, would these murderous priests 
and scribes avowedly believe? Not a whit. They 
suborned and paid men to circulate the story that the 
disciples had stolen His body. This they knew was 
false, from the extraordinary precautions they had 
taken, anticipatory of what might ensue, to guard the 
sepulchre from such molestation, and such contingency. 
What unbelief they had was in their hearts. Their 
intellectual convictions, if they could have been voiced, 
would have declared : Truly this was the Son of God, 
and as they did, — most emphatically on a subsequent 
miraculous occasion: that indeed a notable miracle 
hath been wrought through them is manifest to all 
them that dwell in Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it. 



152 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

Evidence! intellectual conviction! It is not what 
bloody or bloodless, ribald Priests of Unbelief, culti- 
vated, polished skeptics, or the unthinking and un- 
taught rabble need, as the Spirit of God to make their 
hearts humble, docile, receptive of what Truth is given 
them, — the subjection of their human will to the 
Divine. More evidence! more light! Such, unregen- 
erate, unsanctified, would not believe, though Jesus 
should appear again before them, speaking again such 
wondrous words, and working again such stupendous 
deeds.' As the Father of the Faithful, representa- 
tively through Jesus, solemnly averred, — in that trag- 
ical of all tragical interlocutions between the spiritual 
antipodes of the disembodied dead, — on either confine 
of that bridgeless, impassable Chasma — save, by de- 
spairful cry, and hopeless response, — Xd6p,a ^eyal 
"What? Where? — If they hear not Moses and the 

I. One evening, at a small literary gathering, a lady, famous 
for her " muslin theology," was bewailing the wickedness of the 
Jews in not receiving our Savior, and ended her diatribe by ex- 
pressing regret that He had not appeared in our own time. *' How 
delighted," said she, " we should all be to throw our doors open to 
Him, and listen to His Divine precepts ! Don't you think so, Mr. 
Carlyle.?" 

The sturdy philosopher, thus appealed to, said, in his broad 
Scotch, " No, madam, I don't. I think that, had He come very 
fashionably dressed, with plenty of money, and preaching doc- 
trines palatable to the higher orders, I might have had the honor 
of receiving from you a card of invitation, on the back of which 
would be written, *To meet our Savior'; but if He had come 
uttering His sublime precepts, and denouncing the Pharisees, and 
associating with publicans and lower orders, as He did, you would 
have treated Him much as the Jews did, and have cried out, ' Take 
Him to Newgate and hang Him ! ' " 



GOD MANIFEST IN CHBIST. 153 

prophets, neither will they be persuaded, if one should 
rise from the dead. Luke xvi: 31. Humility, docility 
are much more needed than more light as remedial for 
the cure of darkness and unbelief. If any man will- 
eth to do His will, he shall know of the teaching 
whether it be of , God, or whether I speak from Myself. 
John vii: 17. He that followeth Me shall not walk 
in the darkness, but shall have the Light of Life. 
John via : 12. 

The inquiry is now made: Has this Being met the 
wants, the necessities, the eternal outcries of Human- 
ity? It had had for forty centuries such a manifesta- 
tion of God, as the material Heavens and the Earth 
furnished; it was not satisfied. It had had in each 
individual a human form, fearfully, wonderfully made, 
the mysterious psychical life, the spirit pervading and 
wielding this complexity of matter and life, — a triplic- 
ity of body, soul, and spirit, — rd Ttrs-ujia, nai ?/ -^i^vxi^y 
nai TO 6(^fiay I Thess. V : 23, — the quaternity of attri- 
butes, — reason, will, conscience, emotion, — most fear- 
ful and wonderful manifestation of God, for he was 
created in God's image, — the image and glory of 
God, I Cor. xi: 7; was humanity satisfied? were its 
hopes and aspirations realized? It had angelic visita- 
tions. There were frequent glimpses of the shining 
ones on the earth by the favored few, who have re- 
vealed to us what they saw and heard. It had specially 
select and commissioned ones by God, for the recep- 
tion of the revelation of His character, and of His 
requirements to His creatures. Some of them wrought 
stupendous deeds in attestation of their commissioned 
and prophetic character: — was humanity satisfied? 



154 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

Did it not aspire for something more, something 
higher, something not yet revealed? Did it not plead 
for more light upon human destiny across the grave, 
and into the unknown future? Did it not cry for some 
grace, some God-descended pledge external, beside 
and beyond those unreliant, unv*erified, uncertified 
aspirations of the soul, as means for better support 
under trial, — the dark mysteries of life, its perplexi- 
ties, — doubts that would never cease to harass, distress, 
and depress? Did it not sigh for relief from those 
dreadful anticipations of a coming retribution, — that 
fearful expectation of judgment and of fiery indigna- 
tion which shall devour the adversaries; for some 
more illustrious, ampler, more impressive epiphany of 
God in a human form, — by His adequate tarrying on 
earth, by His adequately gracious deeds, by His ade- 
quate manifestation of supreme power, by His ade- 
quate sympathy with every species of human suffering, 
physical, mental, or spiritual, by His adequately au- 
thoritative declarations respecting the hitherto incom- 
prehended mysteries of the next life; — for One Who 
could deliver terror-stricken souls from all the appre- 
hended perils of the eternal Future — through trust in 
Him as their all-sufficient Savior? Was humanity 
satisfied by such theophanies out of the Heavens and 
the Earth? — the visitant angels, or through those ex- 
traordinary ones out of it, who spake as they were 
moved by the Holy Ghost? All this, it had for many 
ages. Society was on the eve of dissolution, — despair- 
ful, deteriorating, drifting to anarchy! Up to the hour 
when Jesus came, the blackness of darkness seemed 
to be settling upon the human family. With all this 



GOD MANIFEST IN CHRIST. 155 

accumulation of manifested light, — the voice of his- 
tory, the repetition of millions of individual experi- 
ences, all the brilliancy of scientific development, is 
the human family satisfied with anything less than a 
God-Man, — the Effulgence of God's glory, and the 

Stamp of His substance, — 'A7ta-bya6^a rrj'; doc,?!^ udi 
XapaKT7/p Trj<i v7to6Td6eGD<^ avrov, Heb, i:3, who COuld 

adequately reveal Him to them — not, so specially, in 
His divine power, which the Material Universe and 
Providential development had ever amply manifested; 
but in His mercy. His tenderness, His unwearied 
patience and love, — Holiness, Justice, Fatherhood?' 
— One who could cast a shaft of light athwart the 
dark bridge of Death into the Unknown — the un grand 

I. We need to have the highest conceptions of Divine Justice 
and mercj, and the highest type of human resignation and duty 
realized in an historical fact, such as we can ever gaze upon with 
wonder and delight ; not till then do thej become mighty to touch 
the deepest springs of our moral being. In Christ, — we have ho- 
liness, rectitude, love, mercy, reconciliation, sacrifice, and life from 
the dead, all embodied in an historical and concrete reality, — a 
reality to which the former dispensations looked forward, and to 
which the Christian consciousness of redeemed humanity has 
ever looked backward, as to the embodiment of its highest and 
purest ideal, etc. — Philosoj^hy of Religion^ Morell. 

A human being is the only medium adapted to the highest 
manifestation of the Godhead; hence humanity would be the 
medium or mediator through which final or perfect knowledge 
of God would be revealed to men Man needs a reve- 
lation to his heart as to his intellect Light is not love. 

. . . Divine love cannot be revealed by precept alone ; . . . 

revealment of love must be a history of love-action 

Hence, a fleshly manifestor . . . could alone reveal the divine 
to the human, etc., etc. 

If the Almighty, therefore, designed ever to give a perfect and 



156 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

peutetre of the doubtful, Who is able and willing not 
only to succor men under the burden of their earthly 
sorrow, but, in the " mystery," to save them from the 
guilty apprehension of the Wrath to Come ? 

Has this Divine Man, — God in Christ met these con- 
ditions, satisfied these requisitions of the human family ? 

No other such Being had walked this earth in such 
unapproachable majesty. No man ever spoke as He 
did upon the commonest and the mightiest themes. 
No man before had been able to cope successfully with 
such mighty adversaries in mind, culture, and station. 
No man before was acknowledged to be faultless, even 
by His enemies. No man ever wrought such stupen- 
dous deeds. No man before brought life and immor- 

final system of instruction to mankind, it could be done only by 
placing in this world a perfect human nature — a Being who would 
not only give perfect precepts, but who would practice those pre- 
cepts before the eyes of men. — Phil, of Plan of Salvatmi^ and God 
Revealed in Christy Walker. 

By what other method can God meet us, then, so entirely new 
and superior to all past revelations, as to come into our world- 
history in the human form; that organ most eloquent in its 
passivity, because it is, at once, most expressive, and closest to 
our feeling 

Christ in humanity is God humanized, divine feeling and per- 
fection let down into the inodes of finite sentiment and apprehen- 
sion. — Dr. BusJinell. 

The human form offers the grandest opportunity for the divine 
manifestation. There is no symbol so perfect as man, the last 
development of creative power, the most complete exposition of 
creative wisdom and love. We see God imperfectly till we see 
Him in the human form. — O. B. Frothingham. 

The greater the Redeemer, the stronger was the necessity of 
His veiling His greatness, and of His appearing in the form of a 
man, and of the lowliest man. — Dr. Channing. 



GOD MANIFEST IN CHEIST. 157 

tality to light. No man before disparted the veil 
intervening between the terrestrial and the celestial. 
No man before disclosed Heaven, and, what its Anti- 
pode of Place or State is, and must ever be, — and 
defined so justly the respective classes which must go 
to the one or the other. No man before went down to 
the depth of sorrow, that He might be able to sympa- 
thize to the uttermost, with every tried one. No one 
before was able to say, or, dared to declare: I am 

THE EeSUERECTION AND THE LlFE. He THAT BELIEV- 

eth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he 
live! And, whosoever liveth and believeth in 
me, shall never die. 

Did this Divinely invested Nazarene satisfy these 
cries of humanity, — not those of the predetermined 
caviller and of the skeptic, who would not believe, 
though one should come to tjiem from the dead; but 
of the * honest-hearted, the broken-hearted, the peni- 
tent and the humble? Has He since, in these eighteen 
centuries, — of these millions who have lived, — dying 
with His name quivering on their lips, — now peopling 
the Heavens? Open, O Heaven! and let this redeemed 
multitude, whom no man can number, circling the 
Throne, with white robes and palms in their hands, 
and with voices like the voices of many waters, and 
as the voice of mighty thunders, — Open, O Heaven! 
and let these blood- washed ones speak: — If it be 
Poetry, — the glimpses of a celestialized Imagination; 
it is likewise the vision and the apocalypse of Celestial 
Truth. 

Worthy art Thou, O Lord, to receive the glory and 
the honor and the power; for Thou didst create all 



158 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

things, and through Thy Will they were and were cre- 
ated. Bev, iv: 11. 

And this is the New Song they sing: Thou wast 
slain, and didst redeem us to God, by thy Blood, out 
of every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation: 
and didst make us to our God, Kings and Priests. 
Bev. v:9, 10. 

And again goes up the acclaim: Worthy is the 
Lamb — having been slain, to receive the Power, and 
the Riches, and the Wisdom, and the Strength, and 
the Honor, and the Glory, and the Blessing! Bev. 
li :12. 

And, — unsatiated, never weary in tne gratulation, 
they return to cumulate at last upon His crowned Head, 
in reverse repetition, all the glories that can possibly 
be expressed through a human vernacular, — the lan- 
guage sinking under the burden: — 

The Salvation to our God sitting on the 'Throne^ 
and to the Lamb! 

Amen! The Blessing, and the Glory, and the 
Wisdom, and the Thanksgiving, and the Honor, and 
the Power, and the Might, be \ to our God Forever 
and Ever! Amen. Bev. vii: 10-12. 



ILLUSTRATIVE AND SUGGESTIVE. 



In the person and work of Christ, the whole of Christianity is 
implicitly involved. There is the germ, there the commencement 
of its whole life, its whole activity, its whole history. Sweep 
away the perfection we see actualized in Him, and there is no 
point in the world's history on which we could fix our gaze as by 
any possibility becoming the starting-point of the higher life, — no • 
other realization of Divine perfection in humanity, — no other 
example of the Word made flesh and dwelling with us. We need 
to have the highest conceptions of Divine justice and mercy, and 
the highest type of human resignation and duty, realized in an 
historical fact, such as we can ever gaze upon with wonder and 
delight; not till then do they become mighty to touch the deepest 
springs of our moral being. In Christ, accordingly, we have holi- 
ness, rectitude, love, mercy, reconciliation, sacrifice, and life from 
the dead, all embodied in an historical and concrete reality, — a 
reality to which the former dispensations looked forward, and to 
which the Christian consciousness of redeemed humanity has 
ever looked backward, as to the embodiment of its highest and 
purest ideal. — Morell^ Phil, of Religion. 

" The brightness of the Father's glory, and the precise image 
of His person," can be reflected with perfect accuracy from no 
merely human mind ever created. God cannot manifest His at- 
tributes in a perfect manner through an imperfect medium. No 
human being ever possessed perfection in conscience, affections, 
and will ; hence no being of our race could reveal truly the Divine 
attributes, even in kind. This being true, the creation of a perfect 
and special humanity was necessary in order to accomplish the 

manifestation of the Divine in the human Man 

needs a revelation to his heart, as well as to his intellect. Light 



160 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

is not love, nor life, nor power, in a moral sense. Divine love 

cannot be revealed by precept alone ; revealment of 

love must be a history of love-action, not a definition of w^hat 
love is. Hence a fleshly manifestor, a living being, acting by the 
promptings of infinite love, could alone reveal the Divine to the 
human; .... the didactic utterance, even if the definition 
were perfect, could not communicate the Divine love to the 
human soul. 

It is true, that, unless superhuman manifestations were made 
through the perfect human, we should only learn the true nature 

of man But the moral powers of the human would 

\i^ perfect in kind^ and, then, if the Infinite were revealed in these, 
— if, in connection with the perfect human, there was revealed an 
indwelling divinity which, when occasion required, developed 
attributes perfect in kind up to Infinity in strength, then that mys- 
terious union of the Infinite with the perfect finite would reveal 
Divinity and ^perfect humanity conjoined in the person of a *' God 
with us." — Walker. 

The race has demanded a Deity with affections ; heart and flesh 
cry out for a living God Who sympathizes with human kind, 
dwells among them, teaches, guides, consoles them, bears their 
burdens, shares their sufferings, heals their diseases, removes their 
infirmities, blesses them, serves them, forgives their sins, promises 
them felicity, opens the way for them to paradise ; a God Who by 
His teaching confirms truth, by His conduct vindicates justice, by 
His example shows the intrinsic beauty and the priceless worth of 
virtue; a God Who represents, illustrates, glorifies the traits that 
belong to all men and women — simply as human beings without 
regard to condition or endowment; Who is not so much a man as 
Man. — O. B. Frothingham^ Religion of Humanity. 

Christ, the Son of God, is now exalted to universal empire. 
Angels are subjected to Him. Nature is subjected to Him. He 
is present by His knowledge and power with His church. He 
never forgets the race for which He died. He intercedes for them. 
He assists them. He watches over the interests of His religion. 
He will make it victorious. The time is coming when His influ- 
ence, now silent, will be conspicuous, when the veil behind which 
He operates will be withdrawn. He is to come with hosts of 



GOD MANIFEST IN CHRIST. 161 

angels. He is to raise the dead, to judge the world, to fulfill the 
solemn threatenings, and to confer the everlasting blessings of 
His Gospel. — Dr. Charming. 

Bj union with Christ, — a real spiritual union constituted by the 
spiritual act of faith, — we take His nature, and partake of His 
qualities. There is here no fictitious transfer of meritorious acts, 
but a real participation in the qualities of that new nature which 
is the center of the new creation, and in which is found a right- 
eousness for all men. So, Christ is truly the Lord our Righteous- 
ness. God sees us righteous in Him, for we are sharers in that 
Nature which is perfectly righteous, and which shall actually de- 
velop in us righteous acts, in proportion as we enter more deeply 
into its life, and, thus, there is an imputation, which has its ground 
in reality, both of sin and righteousness, — an internal, not an 
external imputation. — James Moorhouse. 

If men can feel themselves to possess an arm after the physical 
structure has been amputated, why may they not experience com- 
plete existence after the entire body shall have been removed by 
death.? Some attribute the phenomenon to memory and nervous 
sensation ; but the recollection of it is a very different thing from 

the sensation itself It is the sensation itself which is 

felt, and not the mere recollection of it. It is also true that cer- 
tain nerves are organs of sensation, that they spring out of the 
brain, and are distributed with wonderful economy throughout 
the whole body ; still, we should not forget that they are but or- 
gans of sensation ; and then there will be some difficulty in seeing 
'how organs can produce in man a sensation of their complete 
existence, when they have been partly cut away. 

There must be an instrumental cause by which the mind carries 
its sensations into the physical structure ; and this cause we hold 
to be the most external forms of the internal man acting upon the 
purest substances of the natural body; .... hence the 
spiritual body is the human soul. 

The natural body, while in a state of union with the spiritual 
body, may be compared to a sponge filled with generous wine. 
The fibres of the sponge which contain, and are distended by the 
wine, have, of themselves, no taste or smell; these are derivecj 

M 



162 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

from the fluid which is between them, and these, when the wine 
is squeezed out of them, become mere dead filaments. Such is 
the natural body, when the spiritual body is taken away. 

The mind, however, is not to be confounded with the soul. 
Both life and mind are included in the idea of the soul's existence ; 
still the soul, properly considered, consists in that spiritual human 
form, which has been created for the reception of life, and in 
which the faculties of mind inhere — E. D. Rendell. 

Resurrection is the entrance into embodied existence, after death, 
of the spirit, to which God has given the power of building for 
itself the spiritual body. 

The energy of life is the body-building pov/er, . . . accord- 
ing to natural laws of growth. 

Within the mother's body, life forms a new body in the babe. 

If life existing in a human germ here, is found building its own 
body, life, existing in a human spirit here or there, will be found 
no less able to build itself a body ; . . . for aught we know, 
it begins to build the spiritual body here behind the screen of 
flesh and blood, just as plant-life, ^vhile forming the seed under 
the husk, begins to form, within the seed, the leaflets that are to 
unfold into the future plant. 

The body-building powxr is an inalienable prerogative of life. 

" The first resurrection" is not the getting of new bodies before 
others, but rising into life or well-being before others ; . . . . 
an inward process rather than an outward event. 

"Ante-natal conditions." — The body-building power was inter- 
fered with or was deficient before birth ; . . . one is deaf and 
dumb, a cripple, insane or idiotic. 

The resurrection is not a far-ofl" event of the future, but a con- 
tinuous process now going on in the invisible world. But resur- 
rection, the same as life, is a word which has a higher meaning 

and a lower, a full sense and a bare sense All exist 

hereafter, not all live ; all are in being, not all in -voeU being 

Life is a vital power, derived originally from the divine source 
of all life; .... builds up its own body by assimilating the 
matter which it finds appropriate. — Dr. Jaines M. Whiton^ Gospel 
of the Resurrection. 

Any future existence of the soul rationally involves a future 



GOD MANIFEST IN CHRIST. :|.63 

of the body; — the Christian Scriptures nowhere speak of . . 
. . . an incorporeal finite spirit. 

The apostle would call two successive bodily developments the 
same body, if they were succesively molded and animated by the 
same living force; if their types had always been resident in one 
vital principle. — Jas. MoorJiouse. 

For aught we know, the particles of the body in this dim spot 
of earth may be of the same nature as they shall be in the bright 
home of heaven. 

Spectral analysis favors the idea, that to the remotest systems 
of the infinite depths of space, the constituent elements of all cre- 
ated bodies resemble one another ; while it has also shown, that 
they are more or less the same as those of earth. — Milligan. 

If vegetation was known only in theory, it would be more difli- 
cult to believe in the production of sixty or one hundred grains 
from one grain, than to credit a resurrection. The suspension of 
vitality for two or three thousand years, as in a seed taken from 
the hand of an Egyptian mummy, which, on being planted in the 
ground, produced fruit, is just as difficult to understand as the 
resurrection of the body. 

In proportion as men grow towards spiritual maturity, it will 
come to be seen, that there is but one power in the greatest and in 
the least, in the resurrection of the dead and the shooting of a 
grain of wheat. 

But the essence of spirit consists not in levity. ... A cubic 
foot of oxygen is no more spiritual than a cubic foot of lead. 
Light and electricity are just as material as density and gravita- 
tion, and a body of a hundred-pound weight is just as likely a 
vehicle of spirit, and just as much entitled to be called a spiritual 
body as any imponderable substance. — Hedge. 

Grain brings forth thirty, sixty, and one hundred fold. A 
wayside weed will multiply itself eight or ten thousand times in 
a single year, and it is said, that one thistle seed will produce 
twenty-five thousand seeds, every one equipped for travelling on 
the wings of the wind. — Earnest Words. 

As the body lives by means of the indwelling soul, so the soul 
lives by means of the indwelling spirit. The soul of man, which 
gives life to the body, receives itself a higher life from the spirit. 



164 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

By means of the soul, the body ceases to be a machine, only 
moved bj external forces, but is filled and pervaded throughout 
with an activity of its own. And so, by means of the spirit, the 
soul ceases to be moved and swayed by the world without, by 
earthly passions and desires, but reacts freely from its own stead- 
fast convictions and purposes, moves freely towards its own chosen 
aim. — y. F. Clarke. 

The fluid in which the nervous waves occur is finer than the 
nervous filaments. What if it could be separated from its envi- 
ronment, and held up here.^ It could not be seen; it could not be 
touched. The hand might be passed through it; the eyes of men 
in their present state would detect no trace of it; but it would be 

there The self-evident axiom, that every change must 

have an adequate cause, requires us to hold, that there exists 
behind the nerves a non-atomic ethereal enswathement for the 
soul, which death dissolves out from all complex contact with 
mere flesh, and which death thus unfettering, without disembody- 
ing, leaves free, before God, for all the development with which 
God can inspire it. — Jos. Cooke. 

How now are we to conceive of the corporeity of Christ after 
His resurrection? We find the risen Savior, by His first and 
second revelation to the assembly of the apostles, at trouble to 
convince them that He is the same, . . . with respect to His 
corporeal nature, who was with them before His death on the 
Cross, Luke xxiv.'jg^ 40; John xx: 20^ 26^ seq.\ and the proofs, 
which He makes use of for this purpose, are of such a character, 
that they absolutely include in them the earthlj'- materiality of His 
body. Only under this supposition, could Christ require Thomas 
to place his hand into His side, in order to convince himself, by 
feeling His scars, of the truth of His resurrection, JoJm xx: 2^^ 
and, under the same pre-supposition, is the partaking of food, 
Luke xxiv: 42^ ^j, of which our earthly body is alone capable. 
/ Cor. vi: i^. And, are we perhaps to assume, that the glorified 
body, which, according to / Cor. xv:jo, we may not think of as 
consisting of flesh and blood, has, nevertheless, flesh and bones, 
just as the risen Lord expressly says of Himself.^ Luke xxiv: j^. 

This freedom from death is, according to its true significance, 
the power of a progressing development, by which the realization 



GOD MANIFEST IN CHRIST. 165 

of the possibility of death, depending on the original constitution 
of the human body, becomes excluded, that the mortal might be 
swallowed up by life. It is a holy mystery of which we speak, a 
mystery which, even for our cognition, remains inscrutable ; but it 
will be allowed us, if we are to hold fast the notion of develop- 
ment, to assume, that here everything is not attached to the one 
moment of that fortieth day, but that, from the Resurrection of 
Christ, such a development took place, which cancelled the possi- 
bility of death, /. ^., a development of the glorified corporeal 
nature, the budded condition of which, expanded in His ascension 
to the perfect bloom. This must be thought of as a process be- 
ginning from within and extending outward, in which the Spirit 
progressively penetrates through its body, and conforms it to 
itself, so that it really becomes what according to its nature it is, 
namely, pure, perfectly transparent phenomenon of the Spirit, — 
soma fneu7natiko7i. 

Although the Resurrection must here be held fast as a decided 
turning point, which completes itself in the Ascension, we are 
nevertheless, thereby, not justified in confining that deeply mys- 
terious process within these limits, as if it could not have been 
already prepared ^by moments in the life of Christ prior to His 
crucifixion, — of course without being prejudicial to the full earthly 
reality of His body. There is an event in the Gospel history, 
which indicates the same in the most definite manner, — the glorifi- 
cation of Christ upon the Galilean mount, shortly before His 
suffering, — a revelation of the still concealed glory of His body, 
to His most bosom disciples. This is, in any case, a glory, which 
no one in his earthly life shares with Christ, because only just in 
the sinless man can that development in its commencement and 
progress take place. On the contrary, in all other men, this devel- 
opment to a glorified existence is prevented by sin, and thus the 
possibility of death, in consequence of sin, becomes a necessity 
of this existence. — Julius Muller^ Christian Doctrine of Sin. 



The laws of which we have experience are themselves in an 
ascending scale. First, come the laws which regulate unorgan- 
ized matter ; next, the laws of vegetation ; then, by an enormous 
leap, the laws of animal life, with its voluntary motion, desire, 
expectation, fear; and, above these again, the laws of moral being 
which regulate a totally different order of creatures. Now, sup- 
pose an intelligent being, whose experience was limited to one or 
more lower classes in the ascending scale of laws, — he w^ould be 
totally incapable of conceiving the action of the higher classes. 
A thinking piece of granite would be totally incapable of conceiv- 
ing the action of chemical laws, which produce explosions, con- 
tacts, repulsions. A thinking mineral would be totally incapable 
of conceiving the laws of vegetable growth ; a thinking vegetable 
could not form an idea of the laws of animal life ; a thinking ani- 
mal could not form the idea of moral and intellectual truth. . . 
. . When in the ascending series he arrives at man, we ask : Is 
there no hipfher sphere of law, as much above him, as he is above 
the lower natures in the scale. ^ The analogy would lead us to 
expect, that there was, and supplies a presumption in favor of such 
a belief. — y. B. Mozley^ Miracles. 

There are no real mysteries in nature ; what to-day is a miracle, 
may become a well-known phenomenon, subject to law, to-morrow, 
and assuredly will eventually be so, if inductive inquiry be stead- 
ily carried out. The supernatural continually recedes and disap- 
pears from our view, and the dominion of nature, order and intel- 
ligence daily advances Life is still nature; it is the 

very essence of 7iature; and all the miracles of nature connected 
with it are simply natural phenomena, just as much really subject 
to law as those best known. — Badeji Pozvell^ Order of Nature. 

There is no such thing as what men commonly call the course 
of nature, or the power of nature. It is, truly and properly speak- 
ing, nothing else but the will of God, producing certain effects in 
a continued, regular, constant and uniform manner; which course 
or manner of acting, being in every movement perfectly arbitrary, 
is as easy to be altered at any time as to be preserved. — Dr. SamH 
Clarke. 



CHAPTEE V. 



MIBAOLES — CREDIBLE AND EATIONAL. 

Men of Israel ! hear these words. Jesus — the Nazarene, a man 
from God, approved unto jou by powers, and wonders, and signs, 
which God did by Him in the midst of you, — as ye yourselves also 
know.— Acts ii: 22. 

Such powers are wrought through His hands. — Mark vi: 2. 

And greater works than these shall he do. — John xiv: 12. 

If I had not done among them the works which none other did, 
they had not had sin ; . . . the very works that I do witness 
of Me that the Father hath sent Me. — yohn xv: 24; v: ^6. 

Rejoice not that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather 
rejoice because your names are written in Heaven. — Luke x: 20 

He could not work there a single power, except that, placing 
His hands on a few sick, He healed them. — Mark vi: ^. 

Jesus said unto him, If thou canst! — all things are possible to 
the believer.— il/ar^ ix : 2^. 

This, — Jesus made the beginning of signs at Cana of Galilee, 
and manifested His glory. — Jolm ii: 11. 

I am strong in every respect through Him empowering me. — 
Phil, iv : 13. 

If ye have faith as a mustard seed, . . . nothing shall be 
impossible unto you. — Matt, xvii: 20. 

The mighty, — the external works of Jesus, were 
representatively grouped in the message He requested 
John's messengers to bear to their teacher, as adequate 



168 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

response to his inquiry, Art Thou the Coming One, 
or must we look for another? . . . Go, tell John 
what ye see and hear, that the Blind see and the Lame 
walk; the Lepers are cleansed and the Deaf hear; the 
Dead are raised, and the Poor are evangelized. Matt 
XI : 4, 5; Luke vii:22. The men were amazed, — ex- 
claiming. What kind of a man is this, that even the 
winds and the sea obey Him! Matt. viii:27. The 
multitude seeing, (the cure of the paralytic) were 
amazed, and glorified God, — giving such authority to 
men. Matt, ix:8. And the disciples, seeing, were 
amazed, — exclaiming. How soon is the Fig Tree with- 
ered! Matt, xxi : 20. And they were exceedingly 
astonished, exclaiming. He hath well done all things. 
He makes the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak! 
Markvu:37. 

Such are some of the specifications, incidents, and 
comments of the sacred writers in their mention of the 
works, powers, wonders, signs, etc.,wrought by Jesus, — 
epyay dvvdjuei^, repara^ 6r]^lia^ — SUch definitives hav- 
ing been employed by the witnesses or narrators 
thereof, as they had been impressed, or as His deeds 
were specially indicative to them. Jesus almost inva- 
riably referred to them by the use of the first, simply 
as works. The Jews chose to designate them chiefly 
as signs. Such they sought for from Jesus as seals, 
certifications of His Divine commission.' For the 
summary characterization of these, as well as those 
wrought under the Old Testament Dispensation, a 
single Anglicised word, miracles, has been employed. 

I. Matt, xii: 38, 39; Mark viii: 11, 12; Luke xi:i6, 29, 30; 
John ii: 18; vi: 30. 



MIEACLES — CKEDIBLE AND RATIONAL. 169 

What are miracles, — their distinguishing character- 
istics? What was the special intent of their perform- 
ance, beside the personal cure wrought, and the solace 
afforded to afflicted friends? Is it possible to satis- 
factorily define them? 

Miracles are characterized as supernatural. If they 
are thus classified — as being supposed to be of direct 
spiritual origin, — to distinguish them from ordinary 
sequences in material history — styled natural events; 
such distinction is convenient. But, with reference 
to human apprehension of them, they might be, it is 
believed, more accurately referred to, as preter-ra- 
tioilal, — something exceptional, or additional to ordi- 
nary sequence, baffling the analysis of human reason 
in its present stage of enlightenment, but of possible 
apprehension when more is known of God's ways; — 
not contrary to its primary dictates, prceter rationem, 
not contra rationem. ' Many ordinary processes in 
Nature, if not the most of them, not reckoned miracu- 
lous, are, as well, beside and beyond the present 

I. Nothing that occurs can be strictlj called "supernatural." 
Jesus . . . describes His works, not as violations of the laws 
of nature, but as " works which none other man did." — WJiately. 

Miracles are as much a part of the Divine will, and were as 
much foreseen by Divine Omniscience, as any of those occur- 
rences which are usually regarded as constituting the order of 
nature. — Dr. Carpenter. 

Suspensions of the laws of nature are unphilosophical. 

Those who have felt the greatest difficulty in admitting physical 
miracles, have no hesitation in accepting the assertion of any 
amount of purely moral and spiritual influence, even to the extent 
of those exalted conditions of soul, in which the favored and 
gifted disciple was enlightened by immediate disclosures of Divine 
truth, or endowed with internal energies and spiritual powers, 



170 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

analysis, — the present apprehension of a human rea- 
son. And what Avas once beside and beyond the 
apprehension of a human reason, is not so now; and 
what now is beside and beyond it, will not be so here- 
after. "To that Dutch king of Siam, an icicle had 
been a miracle; whoso had carried with him an air- 
pump and phial of vitriolic ether might have wrought 
a miracle.'" The potency of steam, the appliances of 
electricity or magnetism, — in the production of station- 
ary light, or of the human voice through the wire, would 
have been deemed miracles by the patriarchs, or 

beyond the attainment or conception of the ordinary humail fac- 
ulties. And Theistic reasoners have held it more consonant with 
the Divine perfections — to influence mind, than to disarrange 
matter. 

It is, at least, as great an act of power to cause the sun or a 
planet to move at all, as to cause it to stand still at any one time ; 
. to restore the dead to life — is in itself plainly altogether 
as easy, as to dispose matter at first into such order, as to form a 
human body in that, which we commonly call a natural way. . . 
. . Nothing is miraculous, . . if we have respect to the 

power of God ; or, if we regard our own power and understand- 
ing, then almost everything, as well as what we call natural, as 
what we call supernatural, is in that sense miraculous, and it is 
only usualness or unusualness that makes the distinction. 

All those things, which, we commonly say, are the effects of 
the natural powers of matter and laws of motion, of gravitation, 
attraction, and the like; are, indeed, the effects of God's acting 
upon matter continually, and every moment, either immediately 
by Himself, or mediately by some created intelligent beings. — 
Baden PowelL 

How know we that the works of power and love, alleged to 
have been wrought by Christ, will not, in an age of higher spir- 
itual philosophy, assume their place in the order of nature, as 

I . Carly le. 



MIRACLES — CREDIBLE AND RATIONAL. 171 

Christian disciples of the earliest or still later periods 
— unprepared for their sudden apprehension. The 
Spirit will continue to guide the verifying faculty — 
thus quickened and enlightened, into the apprehension 
of many truths not yet discerned. 

The origin and the initiation of life, vegetable or 
animal, material or spiritual, are as miraculous as 
other events thus classified. No one, as yet, has seen 
life, vegetable or animal, material or spiritual, evolved 
from a protoplasm, or a "luminous cloud." Such ori- 
gin, such evolution from one to the other, cannot be 
confidently afiirmed, because not witnessed or demon- 
strated. In the conflict between the declarations of 
these eminent scientists, under the inspiration of mere 
genius, and the declarations of those who spoke and 

precisely should have been anticipated, a j>riori^ in connection with 
theophanj, — as the very works which could not but have pro- 
ceeded from the divine attributes incarnated in a human form, — 
as bound to the personality of Jesus by the^same constant laws of 
cause and effect which make our daily deeds and words proceed 
naturally from our limbs, muscles, active powers, and mental 
habitudes. — Peabody. 

Miracles .... may be exceptions to what are called the 
laws of nature, as at present understood by the best student ; but 
as witnessed by a seraph, they may have been but the effects of 
laws more in number than we know of, and some of which acted 
marvellously, by being in connection with a mind as peculiarly 
organized as a prophet's is, at a moment of faith in the Head of 
the universe, as Almighty and Good. — Mountford. 

Miracles, while they are exceptions to the laws of one system, 
may coincide with those of another. — y. H. Newman. 

If the progress of discovery is as rapid during the next four 
hundred years, as it has been during the last period of the same 
extent, men will be able to do many things which would now 
appear supernatural. — Reign of Law. 



172 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

wrote as they were moved by the Holy Spirit, prefer- 
ence must be given to the dicta of the latter. The 
author of the Epistle to the Hebrews declares, that 
the worlds, or the eons were established by the AVord 
of God, so that the Seen was not wrought out of the 
Apparent, Heh xi: 3; and Peter, with reference to 
scoffers who will come with mockery in the last days, 
inquiring, — Where is the promise of His coming? 
Since the Fathers fell asleep, all things continue, — as 
from the beginning of the Creation: — For they will- 
fully forget, that, by the Word of God, Heavens were 
of old, and earth existed out of water and through 
water; — through which, the world then was deluged. 
But, by the same Word, the present Heavens and 
Earth are kept in store, reserved for fire in the day 
of judgment, and perdition of ungodly men. II Pet Hi: 
5,7, In Genesis, it is declared, that every thing, animate 
or inanimate, was created by the Fiat of the Almighty; 
that, by His Will or Word, man came into being, in 
His image, and after His likeness. Gen. i. The use 
of means, — a longer or shorter series of antecedents 
and consequents prior to the culmination or the flower 
of the creative acts, is not precluded. The historic 
statement includes the entire process from intent and 
command, until the culminating realization. Just as 
ordinary historians declared, that this human person- 
age or that built this or that structure. In the Will or 
Word of God, is the primal origin of all the created, 
and their continued existence; but that fact does not 
preclude, on His part, the use of intervening factors, 
from conception, through development, to completed 
result, as He, ordinarily, has employed them. Matter 



MIRACLES — CREDIBLE AND RATIONAL. 173 

and mind are not identical; nor, has it been demon- 
strated satisfactorily, that they had a common material 
origin. Matter is impersonal. Mind is, and cannot 
otherwise be than personal. It is inconceivable oth- 
erwise. None of the obvious properties of the first 
are discernible in the last. 

Miracles, so classified and designated, as indeed are 
ordinary events, are the acts mediate or immediate of 
Divine personality, — the Divine Will. They may be 
beyond the present analysis, solution or appre- 
hension of the human reason. That reason must 
find some way to be reconciled to facts. Facts are 
established by testimony, and when thus properly 
attested, that reason cannot, consistently with original 
trust, refuse to give them credence. Nature, in its 
universal sense, includes the entire creation, animate 
and inanimate, — Spirit as well as Matter, — that which 
to man is external, — the course, as well as the consti- 
tution of the Material and Imaterial.' Miracles, then, 
cannot properly be said to be beside and beyond Na- 
ture, or contrary to that which includes them. While 
it may be correctly said, that much of the divine skill, 
and more of the divine intents involved in their crea- 
tion, may be beside and beyond the ability of the 
unaided human reason with its present light, to resolve 
and interpret; it does not follow, that much in them, 

I. God works by many laws which He has not communicated 
to the human intellect, but which, if they should be communicated, 
would be found as natural as the rest—Spi?ioza {Gilletf). 

We are perpetually reminded, that the laws of the spiritual 
world are in the highest sense laws of nature, whose obligation, 
operation, and effect nre all in the constitution and course of 
things. — Reign of Laiv^ Duke of Argyll, 



174 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

which is now incomprehended by that reason, may not 
be apprehended by it hereafter, perhaps in the next 
generation, and so onward and away beyond in the 
after and interminable life. 

Who can limit the knowledge of God, and of all 
His ways, which may be attained by human reason? 
And, it cannot ever be correctly asserted, that miracles 
are contrary to the primary dictates of that reason. 
Nature, — whatever and how much is included or 
excluded in the word, and miracles, whether the term 
refers to the act performed on personality or imper- 
sonality, — mind or matter, persons or things, or the 
effect created in the minds of external witnesses, have 
one common originator. It cannot be, that His works 
will be antagonistic to each other. 

What, then, is a miracle? It is difficult to define it 
in terms which will be etymologically and adequately 
inclusive, in consequence of the limited apprehension 
of the character and scope of the deed or action to be 
defined, and that will properly differentiate it from 
ordinary events, some of which in the past have been 
classified as miraculous, because they were not then 
reconcilable as now with ordinary sequences in the 
Universe. Dr. Bushnell thus defines a miracle, and 
distinguishes between the Natural and the Supernat- 
ural. The distinction is clear as between the world 
of matter and of mind, — sequence in the one, and 
sequence in the other; yet, not entirely satisfactory. 
According to the definition and distinction, both the 
Divine and human wills are Supernatural. In the 
higher sense, God alone can be said to be the Super- 
natural. " A miracle is a Supernatural act, that is — 



MIEACLES — CREDIBLE AND RATIONAL. 175 

which operates on the chain of cause and effect in 
Nature, from without the chain, in the sphere of the 
senses; — -some event which moves our wonder and 
evinces the presence of a more than human power." 

" God has, in effect, erected another and higher sys- 
tem, that of spiritual power and government, for 
which Nature exists; a system not under the law of 
cause and effect, but ruled and marshaled under other 
kinds of laws, and able continually to act upon, or 
vary the action of the processes of Nature." 

" Nature is that world of substance, whose laws are 
laws of cause and effect, and whose events transpire 
in orderly succession, under those laws; the Super- 
natural is that range of substance, if any such there 
be, that acts upon the chain of cause and effect in 
Nature from without the chain, producing, thus, results 
that, by mere Nature, could not come to pass."' 

Poetically, yet most truthfully and accurately, it has 
been said, that " Nature is an effect whose cause is 
God." Some Scientists not only intervene, or under- 
take to designate between this First Cause, and a sub- 
sequent or final effect, a limitless series of secondary 
causes and effects, — all underived and independent of 
God — the First Cause; but, to declare Nature auto- 
matic in first cause and effect, as well as in all suc- 
ceeding; — that in Itself is Its autonomy. But this 
machine must first have had a Personal Creator, and 
a prime starter in action, must it not? According to 
the theory of such evolution, there is no need of, or 
place for an external Creator, Person, or Power, — as 
if a Power, — spiritual, of course, could be impersonal, 

I. Natural and Supernatural. 



176 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

— other than a Person. Such a conception, — such an 
elimination of the Creator conflicts with consciousness, 
and, it may be added, is irrational. Confidence in the 
dicta of one's own personal consciousness, substan- 
tiated and reinforced by the declarations of Revela- 
tion, is preferred to theories or speculation, where no 
place is found for God. 

It is evident, and to most minds irrefutable, that 
the Will of God — purely spiritual, for He is a Spirit, 
is, and must be the primary antecedent of all these 
intermediate factors, — that Divine Will pervading all 
development to the last result. A miracle, likewise, 
is an effect whose cause is God, only that Scientists 
and Philosophers before them have not designated, — 
or what is probable, have not been able to designate, 
intervening space and time not being adequate there- 
for, material secondaries between the Divine Fiat and 
Its execution, or ultimate embodiment; therefore, they 
have hooted at such " mighty works" as antecedently 
incredible, — contrary to their pre-judgments, their 
personal experience. As if there could not be actu- 
ality, or knowledge of such to one, — not personally 
experienced by every other one! They have never 
witnessed life evolving from a protoplasm, or " a lu- 
minous cloud." Let them summon those who have. 
Let adequate testimony be given, and who will refuse 
to believe? These Scientists presume upon enormous 
credulity in Christian believers. The latter produce 
many witnesses to the miracles of Jesus and His 
Apostles, — more than five hundred, as the historian 
avers, who at one time saw Jesus in bodily form after 
His resurrection. Scientists have not produced one 



MIRACLES — CREDIBLE AND RATIONAL. 177 

who witnessed the evolution of life from a protoplasm 
or a luminous cloud, or demonstrated by irrefragable 
logic, that what was senseless, inert slime in one 
evolving process, had become vivid and vivific in the 
next. 

Most would distinguish a miracle from any ordinary 
effect in Nature, as seemingly immediate from God; 
immediate, because the seeming is such to them in the 
absence of an adequately subtle, microscopic vision. 
Many events that seem to us Earthlies to be immedi^ 
ate from God, to the Heavenlies, doubtless, are but 
mediate, and the converse may be as equally true. As 
many points on a landscape seem to the distant ob- 
server—in close contiguity, — when neared, or seen 
through the field glass, are in fact far apart. Thus, 
stars, single to the unassisted eye, by the aid of the 
telescope, have been resolved into binary, and milky 
nebulae into myriads of stellar points. It is question^ 
able, whether God, in the creation of mind or matter, 
ordinarily, if ever, wrought immediately any final 
effect beyond the primal, or, the issue of a Will,— a 
Fiat, or a Word, without the intervention of secondary 
factors, though continuing ever to be a President God 
through all. He could dispense with their interme- 
diate use altogether, by speaking, that it be done,— 
by commanding, that it stand; but is it necessary 
to believe; — is it in conflict with Biblical aflirmation, 
that He ordinarily, or ever, chooses to do so? May 
not such representation of immediateness in creation 
by the Divine Fiat, be for the easier, and the better 
apprehension by man of Divine Personality, — espe- 
cially in the infancy of his history, with undeveloped 

N 



178 THE LIGHT OF LIFK 

faculties, — in accommodation to his necessarily anthro- 
pomorphic idea of Godhead, — in the issue of will 
analogous to the exercise of his own; — in order to 
bring the connection between the Creation and the 
Creator, — the closest possible, to his full recognition 
and realization ? Such representation, also, was adapted 
to compression in statement — to which the sacred his- 
torians were compelled. They were not technical 
Scientists or Philosophers, — if they had been able, or 
it devolved upon them, to undertake to designate, in 
detail, secondary factors in the process of creation. 

When Jesus healed, did He not ordinarily employ 
intermediate instrumentalities? When He summoned 
the widow's son to sit up on the bier, and Lazarus to 
come forth out of his stony prison-house, did He not 
speak ivords, — consequent to His primal conception 
and determination? and did He not, as He was wont 
on such occasions, antecedently pray to His Father, — 
latently or orally? Was it necessary to speak at all, 
and, only to will in the silences of His Supreme Being? 
and, have we reason to doubt, that myriads of sec- 
ondary causes, with the celerity of lightning, succeed, 
when life, — to the dead, — in their cerements, — on the 
bier, or in the tomb, returns ? The chilled and putrid 
blood must again be reanimate with life and heat; the 
lungs must inhale and exhale; hosts of lacteals and 
lymphatics must be active; all parts of the physical 
system must be roused to activity by some nutriment 
supplied; the eyes must ope; the tongue be loosed; 
the ear unsealed; and the limbs resume their motion. 
The physiologist might enumerate a host of interme- - 
diate agencies set at work, before the return of life i 



MIRACLES — CREDIBLE AND RATIONAL. 179 

could be said to be consummated. Ah! all these suc- 
cessively might ensue, and the factor of physical, 
psychical life be wanting, as is evidenced after the 
application of a galvanic battery to strangled crim- 
inals. "Loose him, and let him go." Why was not 
the miracle consummated in the sepulchre, without 
the external and visible sloughing off, or loosing of the 
intricate folds of his winding sheet? The napkin, 
even, which girded the head of our Lord, was care- 
fully folded and placed by itself; the linen wraps of 
the body laid by themselves. He spoke, and It was. 
He commanded, and It stood. Ps. 33 : 9. 

"What difference is there between the instantaneous 
creation of the Universe by the Fiat, and through the 
intervention of a word, or a voiceless, wordless Will, 
— expressed only in the manifest result, — and, that 
culminated through the interposition, and at the ter- 
mination of myriads of secondary causes? Speakers 
and writers describe such and such a battle won by a 
great commander. Did he win it otherwise than 
through will-power, wielded through the instrumental- 
ity of successive subordinates, extending to each and 
every private soldier ? He may have remained quiet 
and imperturbable at his headquarters, — not dis- 
charged a musket, or wielded a sword, or been active 
otherwise than in exercise of will. 

Is the Creator minified by such representation? 
Does the use of intervening factors subtract at all 
from the ability of the Almighty? Doubtless, all 
persons and things were thus made. Let, then, recent 
evolutionists revel in their delight at their supposed 
discovery of the origin, — "the promise and the po- 



180 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

tency o£ life" in the protoplasm, or "the luminous 
cloud." Why do they stay their scrutiny there? 
What is beyond this, — their last analysis? They do 
not pretend to declare, or to denominate. What, but 
Will? The Will of God? God Himself? 

As to the special oflS.ce or design of the acts — styled 
miracles, in the ministry of Jesus and of His Apos- 
tles, or, at earlier periods, — aside from the deliverance 
or the cure wrought, the service rendered, and the 
solace afforded to the afflicted, — the impression made 
on external witnesses, — their sign, seal or attestation; 
— the probable reason for their alleged cessation with 
the death of Jesus and of His apostles, — though, it is 
evident, that they have not ceased to be wrought in 
the requisite exigencies; ' — and, as to the famous argu- 
ment of Hume, ^ re-presented by his skeptical success- 
ors, — that they are delusions and " antecedently 
incredible," since they are contrary to experience, i. 6., 
to their experience, for that is all they can positively 
and lawfully affirm, and, to that of others, who, like- 
wise, so avow, — the testimony of which last, the first 

1. Drs. J. H. Newman and Bushnell have historically illus- 
trated the belief. 

2. Hume's argument is fairlj^ embodied in the following: 
The veracity of testimony is a common experience, but not an 

universal one ; testimony is often dishonest, insufficient, or inaccu- 
rate; especially when influenced by religious zeal, the general 
passion for the marvellous, or by other motives. But the experi- 
ence of Nature's uniformity is constant and universal ; so consid- 
ered, no evidence from testimony can overthrow it; the weaker 
evidence yields to the stronger ; it must always be less likely that 
a miracle occurred than that the testimony is mistaken. In short, 
experience, matured by scientific education, rises above the sphere 



MIRACLES — CREDIBLE AND RATIONAL. 181 

accept, though they will not that of others who pos- 
itively affirm that they did witness such events, — it is 
not proposed to discuss in this connection, further 
than to remark: The ability of the Almighty to work 
the mightiest deeds, or to depute others, — terrestrial 
or celestial, to do them, cannot be questioned. All 
things are and must be possible to Him. He can beat 
down a mountain, — a huge material or spiritual obsta- 
cle, through a man, — a " worm" though he be in phys- 

of testimony, as claiming a right to control it ; and, though not war- 
ranting a denial of the abstract possibility of miracles, it certainly 
justifies the assertion, that all accounts of miracles must be sus- 
picious and untrustworthy. — R, W. Mackay^ The Tubingeji School 
of Theology. 

The essence of the question turns on the consideration of the 
general grounds of antecedent credibility, on which the opinion 
or belief in the miraculous nature of an event really rests; . . 
. . the antecedent credibility is the substantial principle really 

involved in the celebrated argument of Hume The 

real question does not relate to the evidence of the senses, but of 
reason ; not to experience in the limited sense of the word, but to 
the general ground of our convictions, the whole basis of the 
inductive philosophy ; . . . . the order of the natural world, 

and the chain of physical causation Hume lost sight 

of the distinction between the evidence for those grand conclu- 
sions in nature, and that which we have in regard to events con- 
nected with human affairs. 

It is not the fallibility of human testimony, but the infallibility 
of natural order, which is now the ground of argument, and 
modern science cannot conceive religious truth confirmed by a 
violation of physical truth ; miracles are to be regarded as parts of 

some more comprehensive system " These laws are 

unknown laws, but no more unknown than the laws of many 
natural events." — {Butler.) 

Dean Lyell remarks: "The proposition itself, which Hume 
endeavors to establish, but most certainly does not, is, I imagine. 



182 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

ical, mental, or spiritual power, as in fact man is, — in 
the Almighty estimate. Isa, xli: 15, He can speak 
or silently resolve, and, It will be done. All natural 
processes, silent, orderly, and comparatively slow 
though they be in their progression; the noiseless (to 

an indubitable truth. Assuredly, the credibility of a miracle can- 
not be established on human testimony. Not, however, for the 
reasons assigned by Hume, because human testimony is fallible, 
but because human testimony is not the proper proof," .... 
since there is a distinction between an extraordinary fact, which 
is a proper matter for human testimony, and the belief in its being 
caused by Divine interposition, which is a matter of opinion, and 
consequently not susceptible of support by testimony, but depend- 
ent on quite other considerations. — Prof. Baden Powell. 

The fallacy of Hume's argument rests on the false assumption, 
that confidence in human testimony is founded on experience; 
whereas it is founded on a law of our nature. We cannot help 
confiding in good men. — Dr. Chas. Hodge. 

Infants of little or no experience rely on testimony with even 
more confidence than adults. — Milligan. 

A miraculous event is not, as such, necessarily opposed to any 
fundamental law of science ; it is, at most, a contradiction to the 
sum of human experience. — T. W. Powle. 

The historical evidential proof of miracles is greater than any 
that can be given us — -to the life and actions of Julius Caesar. — 
Mystery of Miracles. 

It has been alleged by Hume and others, that a miracle is so 
improbable, so contrary to universal experience, that no amount 
of testimony can prove it. But geology shows plainly, that the 
course of nature is liable to changes and interruptions, and mani- 
festations of creative power. Through the measureless ages 
before the appearance of man, the history of creation was the 
history of the miraculous. The impress of the Creator's fingers 
has been left upon the rocks of the pre- Adamite earth, and the 
leaves of the great stone book are as full of instances of miracu- 
lous power, and special interposition, as is the volume of Revela- 
tion. — Jos, H. WytJie. 



MIRACLES — CREDIBLE AND RATIONAL. 183 

the human ear) and apparently slow extraction of 
moisture from earth or atmosphere, — absorbed and 
distributed through myriads of ducts to the extremity 
of every twig and leaf; and the distillation in the 
vines for the vintage, are as miraculous as the instan- 
taneous conversion of water into wine by Jesus. 
Doubtless there intervened between the command, the 
subsequent acts of attendants, and the final result of 
wine in the water-jars, — the essential ingredients of 
the fruit, though without the presence of the grape 
itself, — factors in the ordinary process of vinous pro- 
duction." But their successive action must have been 
fleet as the lightning. The differentiation was only 
one of time, without the visible presence of grap^ 
In the resuscitation of Lazarus and others; What! 
do you consider it incredible that God doth raise the 

I. He who each year prepares the wine in the grape, causing 
it to absorb and swell with the moisture of earth and heaven, to 
transmute this into nobler juices of its own, did now concentrate 
all these inner processes into a single moment, and accomplish in 
an instant what usually He takes many months to accomplish. — 
Trench. 

Why should not He who made the world out of nothing make 
wine out of water, bring human speech from the mouth of an ass, 
and charm water out of a rock? — Feuerbach. 

To me perhaps the rising of one from the dead were no viola- 
tion of these laws, but a confirmation ; were some far deeper law, 
now first penetrated into, and by Spiritual Force, even as the rest 
have all been, brought to bear on us with its Material Force. — 
Carlisle, 

Once admit, that there is a Being who . . . has at least an 
infinite knowledge of " the laws of Nature," and an infinite power 
of putting them to use, — then miracles lose every element of 
inconceivability. In respect to the greatest and highest of all, — 
that restoration of the breath of life, which is not more mysterious 



184 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

dead? Acts xxvi: 8, " To suppose that a Being out of 
humanity (in His Divine nature) will be shut up 
within all the limitations of humanity, is incredible." 
. . . . " Being a miracle Himself, it would be the 
greatest of all miracles if He did not work miracles." ' 
The differentiation between them and like events, — 
not evolved thus miraculously, may consist in the 
diminution of apparently intervening, — secondary 
causes, and in the lightning-like celerity of action. 
From the earliest periods in the known history of men, 
these, — then incomprehended wonders have been pro- 
fessedly wrought, though at wide intervals, as they 
were required, in Divine prescience. They have been 
expected and demanded by humanity in its childhood 
or its immaturity, — at critical hours, as proofs, that 
there was a president God on the throne of the Uni- 
verse, not unconcerned, uninterested in human affairs, 
but profoundly concerned for its weal. The salvation 
of a mighty nation on the brink of perdition, as ours 
was in the late civil war, was a providential miracle, if 
JGQen would consider. To most judgments, national 

than its original gift, — there is no answer to the question which 
Paul asks, " Why should it be thought a thing incredible by you 
that God should raise the dead ? " — Reign of Law^ Duke of Argyll. 

For each one body that i' the earth is sown, 

There's an uprising but of one for one ; 
But for each grain that in the ground is thrown, 

Threescore or fourscore spring up thence for one; 
So that the wonder is not half so great 
Of ours, as is the rising of the wheat. 

— Herrick, 

I. Dr. Bushnell. 



MIRACLES — CREDlBLll AND BATIONAL. 185 

disintegration was inevitable. Truest friends of Union 
believed it to be so, could not conceive that it would 
be otherwise on ethical presumption, and past prece- 
dents in history. Did ever two nations, sections of 
them, or individuals walk together who could not 
agree? To God, and not to any distinguished civilian 
or military hero, — not even to our heroic legions in 
that contest, must the glory be given for this stay or 
reversal of ordinary sequences.' Just as stupendous 
were the deliverances of the Hebrews in their perilous 
hours as a nation. Worldly Seers may not have dis- 
cerned the intervention of the Hand of God. The 
Hebrew Seers did. Creation was and is miraculous. 
Life is. The succession of the seasons and their 
effects on the earth, the renewal of life to the tree, 
herbage, and flowers, the germination of seeds, are all 
such. Thus is every revelation of science, and every 
manipulation of principles in mechanical inventions. 
The Supernatural is in them as in the raising of the 
dead. A miracle is a wondrous, inexplicable act to 
him, who has been unable to adjust or to reconcile it 
with his discernment and appreciation of the ordinary 
operations of God in the External or Internal, — in Prov- 
idence, which he superficially generalizes into state- 
ments, — styled " Laws," and which he more mystically 
characterizes as "invariable forces." "Laws of God 

I. A special providence thus differs from a miracle in its evi- 
dence, not in its nature ; it is an invisible miracle which is indi- 
rectly traceable by means of some remarkable concurrences in 
the events before us. — Mozley. 

Of the narrative of Paul's shipwreck it may be said, that in it 
nature and miracle have met together, and science and religion 
have kissed each other. — T, W, F<ywle, 



186 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

exist only for us. Law is a Will o£ God for Himself. 
Each law, as we term it, of Nature, is only that which 
we have learned concerning this Will in that particular 
region of its activity."' When by deeper insight, 
more extensive acquaintance with these phenomena, 
he is able to adjust seeming anomalies, — exceptions to 
what he has previously learned of the constitution and 
course of Nature, with the so-styled laws, as they have 
been generalized, they cease to be miracles, — inappre- 
hended marvels to him. Doubtless to higher, — the 
highest intelligences, none of the stupendous deeds 
wrought by Jesus, by His prophetic predecessors, and 
apostolic successors, were miracles, — anomalous, dis- 
orderly, capricious, monstrous events, — phenomena, 
terrestrial or celestial, as we may regard them, but 
were acts, entirely in accord with what they knew of 
God and His way, — His orderly operations in the uni- 
verse, revealed for the first time to man, as some hith- 
erto unknown planetary or cometary traveler through 
space is revealed to the eye of the terrestrial observer. 
The transfiguration on the " high mount," doubtless, 

I. Trench. 

Mechanical laws, which govern solid matter, are modified by 
the subtle influences of heat and electricity. These higher laws, 
again, are modified by vital action in all the forms of vegetable 
and animal life. All the lower forms of life upon the earth, as 
well as all material objects, are controlled in various degrees by 
the reason and will of man. At this point in the ascent, higher 
laws begin to appear, not of mechanical agency or physical se- 
quence, but of moral government. Ideas force themselves upon 
our notice, of right and wrong, duty and disobedience, of sin and 
holiness, of reward and punishment. Beyond these, there emerges 
to the view of faith, when enlightened by the Word of God, and 
by its echoes and reflections in the purified conscience, the glorious 



MIRACLES — CREDIBLE AND RATIONAL. 187 

was no mystery incomprehensible to Moses and Elijah, 
— celestialized participants therein. They had as- 
cended to degrees in celestial knowledge — far beyond 
those they had attained in the Flesh. To those emi- 
nent servants of God, this celestial transformation was 
natural on the occasion. To the disciples in the flesh 
observant, it was a celestial, " supernatural " scene. 

God's way is in the sea, — to men, ever a miracle, — a 
wonder, — most impressive token, — sign of His Omnip- 
otence, — His inscrutable wisdom. To celestial hier- 
archies, such terrestrial way may not be miraculous, 
in the human sense, at all. We are but children in 
celestial knowledge, having mastered only the simplest 
rudiments of the terrestrial. We have never ascended 
into, grappled with the sublime problems of "The 
Mecanique Celeste," and we foolishly, in our sciolism, 
because we cannot solve, apprehend these powers, 
wonders, signs, declare them irrational, improbable, 

vision of a scheme of creative providence and redemption, which 
spans eternity in its range, begins from the foundation of the 
world, stretches forward into the ages to come, includes all events, 
small and great, within its own capacious bosom ; and makes all 
the outward works of the Creator, from the stars of heaven to the 
cedar of Lebanon and the hyssop on the wall, subserve the mys- 
terious counsels of Infinite Wisdom and Love. — Birks. 

Man is a miracle to the beast, the beast is a miracle to the plant, 
the plant is a miracle to the stone; and you may take, if you 
please, the intervening grades as naturalization of the miracles. 

The whole basis of things is miraculous ; nature is one splendid 
miracle. 

Nature borders everywhere on the Supernatural. The com- 
monest things contain germs of the wonderful. Every moment 
of our life, every particle of our body, every vibration of our 
substance, enters the transcendental. Space extends into infini- 



188 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

therefore impossible, incredible, since they are con- 
trary to our individual experiences, and those of the 
masses of mankind, though not to a multitude of wit- 
nesses who witnessed and have attested them. 

If we cannot believe in any affirmation of others, — 
only what we have seen, realized, personally experi- 
enced, then our knowledge must be circumscribed, 
restricted, indeed. Then all alleged facts, outside of 
our personal cognition, cannot be recognized as veri- 
ties. 

Miracles, — events really or seemingly immediate 
from God, are not impossible or improbable, — the 
human situation considered, but altogether probable. 
That they have been wrought at all, and at various 

tude^ time has some alliance with eternity, the human spirit yearns 
for the Divine Spirit. 

Our awaking from sleep, and those resurrections, not uncom- 
mon, from death-like torpor and apparent insensibility, are para- 
bles of the resurrection. 

Christian faith, miracles, revelations, viewed apart from collat- 
eral realities and truths, seem inexplicable and incomprehensible; 
but observed as a whole, as explanatory of the world, as indica- 
tive of an account to render, as remedial of evil, as manifestations 
of future blessedness, they enlarge the arch of physical creation 
into a glorious, world- v/ide cathedral. — Mystery of Miracles. 

Our notions of what is natural will be enlarged in proportion to 
our greater knowledge of the works of God, and the dispensations 
of His Providence. 

What is natural as much requires and presupposes an intelligent 
mind to render it so, — that is, to eftect it continually, or at stated 
times, — as what is supernatural or miraculous does to effect it for 
once. 

The natural is, indeed, a continual miracle, but' being prolonged 
hides its supernaturalism from the common observer. — Analogy^ 
Butler. 



MIRACLES — CREDIBLE AND RATIONAL. 189 

times, is a question of testimony, as in regard to all 
other terrestrial events. The telescope, - the micro- 
scope, the spectroscope, have resolved unnumbered 
seemingly miraculous wonders into intelligible and 
clearly apprehended visions, and at the same time, 
flashed to the sight, glimpses of myriads of the hith- 
erto incompletely discerned, which visions might be 
regarded by a savage as miraculous, — as once the 
flaming of comets in the sky were rated, and, as por- 
tentous, — heralds of approaching calamities upon men, 
because their constituent elements, and the laws of 
their periodicity were not known. It is amazing, that 
a mind which could detect and depict such an opera- 
tion in Nature as the following, did not resolve it, — 
through all the processes to the last analysis, into the 
Will and Act of a Personal Creator. 

" The wonderful noonday silence of a tropical forest 
is, after all, dull only to the dullness of our hearing; 
and could our ears catch the murmur of. these tiny 
maelstroms (currents of protoplasm) as they whirl 
in the innumerable myriads of living cells which con- 
stitute each tree, we should be stunned as with the 
roar of a great city."' "In the world of Physics, we 
know that we are surrounded by movements which 
never make themselves sensible to us — pulsations 
which excite in our eyes no sense of light, and others 
which excite in our ears no sense of sound, — and all 
this for want of adjusted organs." ^ 

Stupendous and beneficent as were the mighty 
works of Jesus; and efficient as they were, not only 
for the temporal and eternal weal of those for whom 

1. Huxle^\ 3. Duke of Argyll. 



190 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

they were specially wrought; but for attestations of 
His Divine power {John xi: 42), instrumentalities also, 
doubtless, for certification to the Divine commission of 
disciples who wrought them, — a necessity for Christ's 
kingdom in its infancy, and for impression upon the 
childlike who would enter in; to be sources of strength, 
hope, joy and consolation to believers in all times {Heb, 
u:4), it is evident, that He did not rank them in 
essence, or as instrumentalities, so highly as did those 
who witnessed them; nor did Paul, — according to 
his enumeration. / Cor. xii. Faith, with the Master, 
was the crowning gift, grace, and power. Mait viii: 10, 
26; ix:22, 29; xiii: 58; xv:28; xx: 30-34; Mark i: 40, 
41; ii: 5; v: 34; vi: 5, 6; Lukev: 20; viii: 48; xviii: 42, 
They were wrought always in mercy and love, for the 
afflicted, — often as the reward of faith, — sometimes 
when there was lack of it — most commonly in certifi- 
cation of Divine commission. They were instrumen- 
talities, in the infancy of the kingdom, to impress 
many who would not otherwise be impressed.' "An 

I. If a teacher claims to be the special organ of a Divine com- 
munication, revealing supernatural truths, he may be justly ex- 
pected to authenticate his mission, in the only way in which it 
can be authenticated, — by the performance of supernatural acts. 
Miracles are, therefore, no more improbable than a revelation ; for 
a revelation would be ineffectual without miracles ; . . . mir- 
acles should be regarded as the most awful and impressive mani- 
festations of Divine power. To make them habitual and com- 
monplace, would be to degrade, if not to destroy their character, 
which would be still further abased if w*e admitted those which 
appear trivial and puerile. The miracles of the New Testament 
were ahvays characterized by dignity and solemnity ; they always 
conveyed some spiritual lesson, and conferred some actual benefit, 
besides attesting the character of the worker. The mediaeval 



MIBACLES — CREDIBLE AND RATIONAL. 191 

evil and adulterous generation," said Jesus, " seeketh 
after a sign." He said to Thomas, who, astounded at 
the presence of the risen Savior, with His gaping side 
and pierced hands, had yielded his doubts, exclaiming 
ecstatically, "My Lord and my God!" ''Thomas! 
because thou hast seen Me, thou hast believed; blessed 

miracles, on the contrary, were frequently trivial, purposeless, and 
unimpressive; constantly verging on the grotesque, and not un- 
frequentlj passing the border. — Rationalism in Europe^ Lecky. 

The sacred writers under both dispensations appealed to these 
wonders as proofs that they were the messengers of God. In the 
New Testament, it is said, that God confirmed the testimony of 
His apostles by signs and wonders, and divers miracles, and gifts 
of the Holy Ghost. Our Lord was approved by miracles, signs, 
and wonders, which God did by Him. Acts ii: 22. Jesus con- 
stantly appealed to His miracles as a decisive proof of His divine 
mission. John v : 20^^36; x: 2^^ J7, 38; . Undoubtedly, the 
highest evidence of the truth is the truth itself ; as the highest 
evidence of goodness is goodness itself. Christ is His own wit- 
ness Miracles are designed to prove, not so much the 

truth of the doctrines taught, as the divine mission of the teacher. 
. . . . When a man presents himself as a messenger of God, 
whether he is to be received as such or not, depends, first, on the 
doctrines which he teaches, and, secondly, upon the works which 
he performs. — Dr. Ckas. Hodge. 

What a miracle is designed to prove, and what alone it is, ;per 
56, competent to prove, is not the truth of the doctrine, but the 
Divine commission of the teacher of that doctrine. — Wm. L. Alexander. 

A miracle does not prove the truth of a doctrine, or the Divine 
mission of him that brings it to pass. That which alone it claims 
for him, at the first, is a right to be listened to ; it puts him in 
the alternative of being from heaven or from hell. — Trejich. 

It is indeed the miracles only that prove the doctrine ; and not 
the doctrine that proves the miracles, but .... it is always 
necessary to be first supposed, that the doctrine be such as is in 
its nature capable of being proved by miracles.— Z>r. SamH Clarke, 



192 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

are they that have not seen, ana yet have believed/* — 
thus giving sanction to the reasonableness and wis- 
dom of faith in human testimony, and invoking a 
blessing upon those who accept it. Thomas, at first, — 
as many since and in our day, would not accept testi- 
mony, as he did on all other subjects. Faith in Him, 
trust in His averments, — His pledges of eternal love, 
Jesus indicated to be more desirable on the part of 
His disciples, than ability to work miracles, and He 
ranked it higher as an element of spiritual power. 
Wicked men have been allowed, in inscrutable wisdom, 
and for inscrutable purposes, to work them, or their 
counterfeits. The ability to work them has not assured 
the goodness, purity, infallibility of the workers. In- 
deed, the children of Israel {Deut 13: 1-5) are spe- 
cially warned not to give heed to the wicked teaching 
of a prophet who undertook to enforce it by the per- 
formance of a real or apparently preter-rational act; 
and Jesus forewarned His disciples that false Ohrists 
and false prophets would appear, — do many wonderful 
works (powers) for attestation of their superhuman 
claim; and He solemnly declared, that, when such 
presented themselves before Him, at the Last Day, 
for recognition and approval as among His chosen 
ones: He would profess unto them, I never knew 
you; depart from Me, ye that work iniquity. Matt 
vii:22:23.' 

I. What can a miracle taken bj itself prove .^^ Manifestly, 
nothing but power, — power sufficient to w^ork it, power of which 
we can predicate nothing under our definition of miracles, except 
that it is superhuman. 

As a good spirit might work a miracle by a wicked man, so a 
bad spirit might work a miracle through a good man ; and, as no 



MIBACLES — CREDIBLE AND RATIONAL. 193 

Furthermore, the Great Teacher positively and im- 
pressively declared: Verily, verily, I say unto you, the 
believer in Me shall do the works which I do; and 
greater works than these shall he do; since I go unto 
the Father. And whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, 
that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the 
Son. If ye shall ask anything in My name, I WILL 
DO IT. John XIV : 12. 

Now, though God has not, in the later times, in- 
vested His servants with power to unseal blind eyes 

man, merelj because he is good, can have any special means of 
discriminating between the superhuman works of good and evil 
spirits, he would have to " try the spirits whether thej be of God." 

A superhuman authority needs to be substantiated by super- 
human evidence; and what is superhuman is miraculous. It is 
not the truth of the doctrine, but the authority of the teacher that 
miracles are employed to prove ; and the authority being estab- 
lished, the truth of the doctrine follows from it. 

Christ admits that devils were sometimes cast out by the sons 
of His bitterest enemies. The inference is plain, that their power 
over the kingdom of Satan was, as well as His, derived direct 

from God The general tendency of Gospel testimony 

is to show that Christ regarded miracles as a two-edged sword, a 
weapon which might serve the cause of the Devil as well as the 
cause of God. . . . Antichrists, we learn from our Lord, 

shall show great signs and wonders, in so much that, if it were 
possible, they would deceive the very elect. 

There is, no doubt, as Lecky maintains, a period in human his- 
tory when we look for miracles with as certain an expectation of 
finding them, as for apples in Autumn. At such time, it will be 
seen, that earth, air, and water are instinct with spiritual life, and 
even the ordinary course of nature is supernatural. 

If orthodox Christians believe in Jesus because of His miracles, 
I believe in Him in spite of His miracles. — (^Rousseau) Authority 
of Conscience^ C. Morel. 

These prodigies are not Christianity ; the substance is not in 

O 



194 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

and dumb ears, and to reanimate the dead, — by a word 
or a gesture, or by a voiceless determination, as was 
the prerogative of Jesus, though He may impart, lim- 
itedly, in the required exigency, and upon requisition, 
as He did, after His departure, to some of the apos- 
tles. He permits them, in the language of Jesus Him- 
self, to do greater works than these, — to wield spiritual 
power in the regeneration and sanctification of men. 
Power, original or delegated, to revivify dead bodies 
is indeed mighty; potency to quicken souls, dead in 
sin, into life, is mightier still. 

Every believer is God's miracle. 

The prayer of faith, it is believed, sometimes heals 

them ; they are only signs and tokens of the substance ; . . . • 
and the living power of Christianity is never to be tested by their 
frequency, or the impressiveness of their operations. There may 
evidently be too many of them, as well as too few. As soon as 
they begin to be taken for things principal, or for the real sub- 
stance, they become idols and hindrances of faith. — Dr. Btishnell. 

It is evident, that the Devil, unrestrained by God from the 
exercise of natural power, will be able, by reason of His invisi- 
bility, to work ti'ue and real miracles. No man can doubt but 
evil spirits, if they have any natural powers at all, have power to 
destroy men's bodies and lives, and to bring upon men innumera- 
ble calamities ; which, yet, in fact, 'tis evident God restrains them 
from doing, by having set them laws and bounds which they can- 
not pass. — Dr. Sa?n''l Clarke. 

True miracles are separated from Satanic miracles, and affirmed 
to be Divine workmanship, by their connection with a wonderful 
plan of salvation, marvellous doctrines, and holy precepts. 

The character of the agent, and the design for which a super- 
natural event is brought about, determines whether it is truly a 
miracle, or whether it is one of the lying wonders of the Devil. — 
Dr. Hodge. 



MIEACLES — CREDIBLE AND RATIONAL. 195 

the sick; brings all the resources of Heaven and earth 
to achieve the mightiest enterprises, and what is best 
and more, to rescue souls from perdition. The Son 
of God significantly intimated, if He did not positively 
afiirm, that physical achievements, regarded superhu- 
man, are possible to him, the sphere of whose faith is 
not greater than the least of all seeds. The Alps have 
been tunnelled. They can be levelled and cast into 
the sea. Tunnelling seas is possible to those who have 
faith to undertake. It has been demonstrated. All 
such material achievements are " mighty works" of the 
human will. If two miles, why not thousands? 
Oceans, with vast continents intervening, have been 
brought near to each other through steam and elec- 
tricity. The iron track has pushed across swollen 
rivers, through arid deserts, and tangled woods, over 
or through granite mountains to either shore. The 
earth is being reticulated with magnetic wires, over 
which, — through the air, — along rocky shores, — 
through slimy depths of oceans, men's thoughts and 
purposes, as well as God's voice in daily providences, 
are current in electric fire. ' That potency is seized, 
concentrated, and wielded, at will, at any point of its 
circuit, for the illumination of the earth, with such 

I. The details of the battle at Spitzkop between the Boers and 
the English, were put into a dispatch of about twentj-five hundred 
words at night, sent upon the army field wires, and reached the 
coast. Hence it traveled up the east coast of Africa, over three 
thousand miles, and tapped the East Indian wires in the Gulf of 
Aden ; thence on the bottom of the Red Sea, another two or three 
thousand miles to the Mediterranean ; thence on the bottom of the 
Mediterranean to Italy ; thence through Italy, and over the Alps, 
and through France, and across the British Channel to London. 



196 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

intensity, that that from the moon and stars pales in 
its presence. The slightest whisper of speech, or 
breath of melody is instantaneously conveyed from 
the expressing lips, to the listening ear at the other end 
of the circuit. Soon shall the Iron Horse be seen 
gliding through our streets, or across the Continent, 
without the puff of the Engine, or the hiss of Steam, 
under the regimen of this invisible Power, and even 
the clatter of the wheels be muffled. Such are wonders, 
— miracles, in a sense, of the human will, seizing upon 
and appropriating all formulated and recondite princi- 
ples in the material or spiritual. God has delegated 
such ability to chosen men, thus to apply, to construct 
and to wield. These are all wonders, — miracles, at 
least, to the terrestrial. Such power was delegated to 
Jesus, relatively or absolutely assumedby Him, by vir- 

Not stopping there, it goes to Valentia, on the west coast of Ire- 
land, and speeds across the Atlantic to Newfoundland, thence to 
New York, and from New York across the continent to San 
Francisco, and on the following morning it is printed in every 
daily newspaper in the civilized world, — a thousand of them in 
this country. Is there anything more marvellous, than that one 
in Chicago can sit down to breakfast, and read the details of a bat- 
tle that took plac@ the day before in the southernmost parts of 
Africa, thirty degrees below the equator, and almost at the antip- 
odes ? — Chicago Tribune. 

By his machines, man can dive and remain under water like a 
shark; can fly like a hawk in the air; can see atoms like a gnat; 
can see the system of the Universe like Uriel, the angel of the 
sun ; can carry whatever loads a ton of coal can lift ; can knock 
down cities with his fist of gunpowder ; can recover the history 
of his race by the marks which the deluge, and every creature, 
civil or savage, or brute, has involuntarily dropped of its existence ; 
and divine the future possibility of the planet and its inhabitants! 
by his perception of laws of nature. — E?nerson. 



MIRACLES — CREDIBLE AND RATIONAL. 197 

tue of His Deity in manifestation. Between it and 
that permitted to human will, there is a difference, 
of course, — in degree more than quality. That to 
men is finite. That through the Son of God must 
have been infinite. 

All such are illustrations of power to manipulate 
and to wield invisible potencies in Nature, for mate- 
rial, and even spiritual ends. 

But what are such manifestations to those wrought 
by the Spirit and the Grace of God, in the regenera- 
tion and edification of a soul, — in which redeemed and 
chosen men are permitted to be participants, even 
instruments, through whom God works? The regen- 
eration of such an one as Saul of Tarsus, — dead in 
trespasses, was a greater miracle than the resuscitation 
of the dead body of Lazarus. One was the revivifi- 
cation of a material body, and its reunion with the 
departed spirit. The other was the regeneration, rev- 
olution, reconstruction, transformation of a vigorous 
and tremendously resolute soul, — intensely biased, — 
depraved, as it may be said, and swayed by the Prince 
of Evil. What did the Apostles achieve? Passing 
from the material into the spiritual sphere, what has 
God permitted His regenerate children, the disciples 
of His Son, — the "greater works than these," to do? 
Let the Christian centuries proclaim. What did the 
Puritans of Old England? What is the voice from 
the dungeon, the stocks, the gibbet, and the stake? 
What are the results from modern missions in the last 
half century? What did a few men in their radical 
and persistent assaults upon slavery, for the deliver- 
ance of this nation? For the possibilities, the capa- 



198 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

bilities, and the realities of faith, let men recur to the 
eleventh of Hebrews, — an epitome of sacred history, 
a registry of Titanic deeds, superhuman through 
Grace. Never was there such a roll-call of worthies. 
Never such a muster of heroic names. The air is 
resonant with celestial drum-beats, — rings and rever- 
berates with trumpet-calls, is alive with heroic cries, 
as the Mighty Dead step forth in succession to the 
Reveille! — Who through Faith subdued kingdoms, 
wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the 
mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped 
the edge of the sword, from weakness were made 
strong, became mighty in tvar, routed hostile armies, 
Heb. xi: 33, 34, And such are the deeds of Faith, — 
possible to be wrought by frail, but regenerate and 
sanctified men! Courage! Believer! Have Faith, 
if not larger than a mustard seed, and thou mayest be 
able to move mountains of material or spiritual obsta- 
cle, and they shall lift their defiant heads no more. 
All things are possible to the Believer, ndvra dvvard 

r(0 Ttidrevorri. 



I 



ILLUSTRATIVE AND SUGGESTIVE. 



MIRACLES EXCEPTIONAL — NOT ORDINARY. 

There were only five or six miracles from the Creation to the 
Deluge, — a period of more than sixteen hundred jears. From 
the Flood to the Descent into Egypt, a period of six, but, according 
to the Septuagint, of fourteen centuries, only three miraculous or 
quasi-miraculous events of a public character are chronicled. 
There were ten events in the life of Abraham, three or four in 
that of Isaac, and eight in that of Jacob, — most of them are sim- 
ply dreams or visions. 

From the Exodus and the Conquest were about forty-five years, 
— the season when the Law was given and Written Revelation 
first began. The signs and wonders were -more abundant, — to 
attest the written law, which was to be the basis of all the later 
messages of God. 

From the Conquest to Solomon was considerably more than 
four hundred years, the miracles or wonders were not more than 
twelve. 

From Solomon to the Captivity, about forty of these wonders 
are recorded during this period of four hundred and thirty years, 
and two or three others in the history of Daniel. 

In the last period, from the Return of the Jews from the Cap- 
tivity until the Birth of Jesus, — more than five hundred years, no 
miracles are recorded. The whole number was rather more than 
one hundred for four thousand years, from the first Adam to the 
second. 

The New Testament history is comprised in sixty-six years. It 
begins with miracles from the infancy of Jesus, and they are 
recorded in the last chapter of Acts. But, during twenty-eight 



200 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

years of this period, or nearly one-half, no miracles are specified. 
We find, that the Bible itself teaches clearly, that miracles were a 
rare exception, and not the ordinary rule of Providence. 

There was a wise parsimony in their distribution, — following a 
manifest law, no less than the planets of the solar system, — 
grouped mainly around two centers, — the Law of Moses and the 
Gospel of Christ. 

Out of twenty-one epistles there are only seven in which the 
topic of miracles is directly introduced. In the other fourteen 
they are passed by in total silence ; or, if there be allusion to them, 
it is so delicate and unobtrusive as to require the most careful 
search to find any trace of it. Out of one hundred and twenty - 
one chapters, there is only one which contains a formal and dis- 
tinct statement of the existence and nature of miraculous gifts in 
the early churches; and, out of nearly three thousand verses, 
there are, besides that one chapter, only about twenty, scattered 
up and down, which contain distinct allusions to the same truth. 
—T, R. Birks. 



We have the highest possible authority, that of Scripture itself, 
to justify us in putting the question, — whether miracles can, of 
themselves, work a true conviction in the mind. There are spir- 
itual truths which must derive their evidence from within, which, 
whoever rejects, neither must he believe though a man were to 
rise from the dead. And under the Mosaic law, a miracle in at- 
testation of a false doctrine, subjected the miracle-worker to death. 
Is not a true, efficient conviction of a moral truth, — is not the cre- 
ating of a new heart, which collects the energies of a man's whole 
being in the focus of the conscience, the one essential miracle, the 
same and of the same evidence to the ignorant and to the learned, 
which no superior skill can counterfeit, human or demoniacal, — is 
it not that implication of doctrine in the miracle, and of miracle 
in the doctrine, which is the bridge of communication between 
the sense and the soul ; — that predisposing warmth which renders 
the understanding susceptible of the specific impressions from the 
history, and from all other outward seals of testimony .f* Is not 
this, — the one infallible criterion of miracles, by which a man can 
know whether they be of God.? The abhorrence in which the 
most savage or barbarous tribes hold witchcraft, in which, how- 



MIRACLES — CREDIBLE AND RATIONAL. 201 

ever, their belief is so intense as even to control the springs of 
life, — is not this abhorrence of w^itchcraft under so full a convic- 
tion of its reality, a proof how little of divine, how little fitting to 
our nature, a miracle is, when insulated from spiritual truths, and 
disconnected from religion as its end? — The Friend^ Coleridge. 

The moral part of our Savior's doctrine would have appeared 
infallibly true, whether He had ever worked any miracles or not. 
The rest of His doctrine was what evidently tended to promote 
the honor of God, and the practice of righteousness amongst men. 
Therefore, that part, also, of His doctrine was possible, and very 
probable, to be true ; but yet, it could not from thence be known 
to be certainly true, nor ought to have been received as a revela- 
tion from God, unless it had been proved by undeniable miracles, 
and the miracles He wrought did, indeed, undeniably prove it to 
be the doctrine of God. 

Miracles can never render a foundation valid, which is in itself 
invalid ; can never make a false inference true ; can never make a 
prophecy fulfilled which is not fulfilled ; can never mark out a 
Messias, or Jesus for the Messias, if both are not marked out in 
the Old Testament. But miracles can give a man a just and 
undeniable claim to be received as the promised Messiah, if the 
prophetic character of the Messiah be applicable to Him. And 
this it is by which Jesus was proved to be the Christ. — Dr. SamH 
Clarke. 

Miracles themselves simply attest the presence and working of 
a superhuman power; they do not, without some farther test, 
prove that this pov/er is that of the true and only God ; . . . . 
the test may be two-fold — the greatness of the message, or the 
moral features of the message viewed as a whole. . . . Both 
of them rest alike in the voice of reason and distinct examples in 
the word of God. The Divine Power must surpass the power of 
all spirits of evil. The Lord of Heaven and earth will merely 
suflTer these spirits to work seeming wonders, so far as to illustrate 
more brightly His own supremacy and omnipotence. — Birks. 

The direct object of miracles is not to prove a doctrine, but to 
attest the mission of a person, and only indirectly to bear upon 
the question of the truth or error of what he delivers. 

Miracles are intended to prove directly, not a system of doctrine, 



202 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

but certain facts. Jesus is the Christ, God Incarnate ; that is not 
a mere doctrine. 

Coincidence between the event, and the claim of the agent to be 
a messenger from God is a real miracle. — Litton on Miracles. 

It is " more consistent with the attributes of Deity to look upon 
miracles, not as deviations from the laws assigned by the Almighty 
for the government of matter and mind, but as the exact fulfil- 
ment of much more extensive laws than those we suppose to 
exist." — Babbage (^quoted by Dr. Hodge). 

Miracles, as physical events, must be referred to physical 
causes, possibly to known causes ; but at all events, to some higher 
cause or law, if at present unknown. — Baden Powell. 

If it be nothing incredible that we should act on the chain of 
cause and effect in natvire, is it more incredible that God should 
thus act.? . . . Nature, or the realm of things, is not the sys- 
tem of the universe ; there is beside a realm of powers. 

There is no incarnation, therefore, no miracle, no redemptive 
grace or experience, for God's system is nature, and it is incred- 
ible that the laws of nature should be interrupted ; all of which is 
certainly true, if there be no higher, more inclusive system, under 
which it may take place systematically, as a result even of system 
itself. — Dr. Buslinell. 

I am conscious of a certain natural resistance in my mind to 
events vmlike the order of nature. But I resist many things 
which I know to be certain: infinity of space, infinity of time, 
eternity past, eternity future, the very idea of a God and another 
world. 

. . . I mav resist and believe at the same time ; ... re- 
sistance, therefore, is not disbelief. . . . 

. . . Faith is reason, only acting under particular circum- 
stances. . . . Our faith in the existence of a God and a future 
state is not founded upon reason as much so, as the belief in the 
commonest kind of facts. . . Faith, then, is unverified reason. 

The visible supernatural is the appropriate witness to the invis- 
ible supernatural. ... A supernatural fact is the proper proof 
of a supernatural doctrine. " Order of nature " means the con- 
nection of that part of the order of nature of which we are ignor- 



MIRACLES — CREDIBLE AND RATIONAL. 203 

ant with that part of it which we know — the former being 
expected to be such, because the latter is. 

. . . The elevation of a body in the air by the force of an 
arm is a counteraction, indeed, of the law of gravitation, but it is a 
counteraction of it by another law as natural as that of gravity. 

. . . Our ignorance of the physical laws by which earth- 
quakes and pestilences occur, is a precedent for our being ignorant 
of the general laws of wisdom by which miracles occur. 

. . . In the theological sense of natural law, which includes 
the invisible laws of divine power, all the miracles of Scripture 
are instances of natural law. 

If it was the will of God to give a revelation, there are plain 
and obvious reasons for asserting, that miracles are necessary as 
the guarantee and voucher for that revelation. 

Each of these kinds of evidence, in their view, stood in need of 
the other; miracles to show who was the object of prophecy; 
prophecy to mark the divine character of the miracles ; but neither 
of these w^as regarded as sufficient without the other. 

Every miracle in Scripture is as natural an event in the uni- 
verse as any chemical experiment in the physical world. 

A religion founded on miracles, as compared with a religion 
founded upon the evidences of a God in nature, has a much su- 
perior motive power in the very fact of its supernatural origin. — 
Mozley on Miracles. 

The highest significance of the miracles of the New Testament 
consists mainly in the fact, that they show more entirely the con- 
trol of mind over matter, or the sovereignty of spiritual volition in 
natural things. — Heart of Christ. — Sears. 

I believe the time may come, in which the race will have reached 
that stage of development in which it will be found, that there is 
power in the soul of a man to use natural laws in ways that are 
now misunderstood, and that we call miraculous. — H. W. BeecJier. 

Take away miracles, then all sacred doctrines, all promises, all 
hopes perish, for they are founded on miracles. 

To assume that intelligence, and life, and motion, are essential 
properties of matter, is to make matter and nature a wonder great 
as God. — Mystery of Miracles. 



204 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

There is nothing in Religion incompatible with the belief that 
all exercises of God's power, whether ordinary or extraordinary, 
are effected through the instrumentality of means — that is to say, 
by the instrumentality of natural laws brought out, as it were, and 
used for a divine purpose. — Reig7i of Law. 

It is a legal maxim that "exceptions prove the rule;" and some 
day or other it will be commonly held, that by their nature and 
manner, miracles make more plain the very laws against which 
they would seem to except. 

Perhaps, after all, miracles were in order always — in perfect 
order, in the order of the Universe ; as, of course, they must have 
been . — Miracles^ etc. — Moimtford. 

Having accepted the doctrine of the Incarnation itself — the 
crowning miracle — attendant miracles are not obstacles to belief. 

The record of a miracle cannot have the convincing force of the 
miracle itself. — Asa Gray, 

The idea that a miracle can authenticate a doctrine . . . im- 
plies that our understanding is competent to decide whether an 
act be divine, but not whether a doctrine be divine; that the 
power displayed in a prodigy inay be sufficient to justify us in con- 
fidently assuming it to be from God, but that the beauty, the sub- 
limity, the innate light of a doctrine or a precept cannot be suffi- 
cient to warrant us in pronouncing it to be from Him ; that God 
can impress His stamp unmistakably on His physical, but not on 
His moral emanations ; that His handv»Titing is legible on the sea, 
or the sky, or the flower, or on the insect, but not on the soul and 
intellect of man. . . . 

The eye or the ear is a ti'uer and quicker percipient of Deity 
than the Spirit which came forth from Him. God is more cog- 
nizable by the senses than by the soul ; by the material philoso- 
pher than by the pure-hearted but unlearned worshiper! 

All power is the gift of God — the power of rank, the power of 
wealth, as well as the power of working physical marvels — ^yet are 
these given to the good alone, or chiefly } Are these bestowed on 
those who employ them exclusively, or mainly, in the service of 
mercy and truth.? — The Creed of Christejidom. — Greg. 

Stupendous consequences have ensued from the relation of 
Jesus to the Scriptvires. These consequences themselves are out 



MIRACLES — CREDIBLE AND RATIONAL. 205 

of the ordinary course of nature. They rnay well be termed mir- 
aculous. Had there been nothing miraculous in the Old Testa- 
ment, the character of Jesus and the religion of the Christ would 
have been alike impossible. Had there been nothing miraculous 
in the person and character of Jesus, the New Testament, as a 
mere literary phenomenon, would have been impossible, and so 
would the existence of the Christian church. These things singly 
are evidences of the miraculous only short of demonstration; 
taken together they furnish the completest possible moral proof of 
what can only be regarded as a miracle. But having arrived so 
far, it is not hard to see, that what is miraculous as a whole may 
also be miraculous in its parts. What is in itself miraculous may 
be fraught with miracles. The resurrection of Lazarus at this dis- 
tance of time cannot be investigated, and therefore cannot be 
proved ; but who shall say that the resurrection of Lazarus was 
beyond the power of one who should Himself rise from the dead? 
Taking the very widest possible margin, we may say, that with- 
in the first century and a half of our era this simple formula, Jesus 
is the Christy had called into existence the whole of that literature, 
whatever its value, which is comprised in the New Testament. — 
Rev. Stanley Leathes. — The Religion of the Christ. — Bamfton 
Lectures, 

The Gospel miracles are acts of mercy, or acts of power. There 
are seventeen cases on record of His healing bodily disease; there 
are six cases of the cure of demoniacal possession ; there are three 
cases of restoration to life. . . . The creation of the wine out 
of water ; of feeding the five thousand ; the stilling of the tempest ; 
the walking on the sea ; His rendering Himself invisible to a hos- 
tile multitude ; His aweing by a glance the traders in the Temple, 
and the multitude who came to him ; the malediction upon the fig 
tree — imply power. — H. P. Liddon^ D, D. — Some Elements of 
Religion, 

The New Testament . . . teaches us that the essential and 
original nature of faith lies, not in the acceptance of truths which 
are revealed, but in confidence in a person who is manifested. 
" He that cometh to Me," " He that believeth in Me," is the Lord's 
own account of the child of the new covenant who is the fit recip- 



206 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

ient of advancing doctrines. Faith, as seen in the Gospels, results 
not, in the first place, from the miracles which justify and sustain 
it, but from the personal impression which appeals to the con- 
science and the spirit in man. The first disciples believed before 
a miracle had been shown. It was imputed as a fault; — "Except 
ye see signs and wonders ye will not believe;" and it was a con- 
descension to inferior spiritual sensibilities when the simple word, 
" Believe Me " was changed to " Or else believe Me for the very 
work's sake." . . . The Lord Himself is His own evidence, 
and secures our confidence, love and adoration by what He ts^ more 
than by what He does. — T. D. Bernard, — The Progress of Doc- 
trine in the New Testa7nent, 

Law fades out into miracle, and miracle runs up into law. 
An assertion of " the reign of law " does not disturb us so long as 
we are conscious of the hourly miracles wrought by personality. 
. . . God, who is both a will and a force to the universe — a 
force in it, and a will over it. — Theo. T. Hunger, — The Freedom 
of Faith, 

Magnetism . . . suspends gravitation. ... If the course 
of nature implies the whole order of events which God has or- 
dained for the government of the world, it includes both His ordi- 
nary and extraordinary dispensations, and among them miracles 
may have their place, as a part of the universal plan. — Bamfto7t 
Lectures, — Jos. White, 

The theories of those who assail Christianity make larger de- 
mands upon the faith of such as embrace them than the Christian 
scheme itself, marvellous as it is in many points. 

If miracles cannot take place, an inquiry into the historical evi- 
dences of Revealed Religion is vain ; for Revelation is itself mir- 
aculous, and therefore, by the hypothesis, impossible. — Geo, Raw- 
linson^ M, A. — Hist, Ev. of the Truth of the Script, Record, 



The Holy Spirit, therefore, comes to complete Revelation. . . 
It enables Christianity to accept the valuable results of Science, of 
Heathen religion and Heathen philosophy — all that God has taught 
in other w^ays to His children. It makes Christianity an advanc- 
ing religion, alw^ays abreast with the age ; only a little before it — 
its Leader and Guide. — y. F. Clarke. 

The guidance of the Holy Spirit of God was promised, not to 
one age only, but to the church of all ages, even to the end of the 
world; but the lessons of century after century ought to have 
taught us, that guidance into all necessary Spiritual truth is a very 
different thing from critical infallibility. — Farrar. — Early Days of 
Christianity. 

The volume of the World 

Is legible alone to those who use 

The interlinear version of the Light; 

Which is the Spirit's, and given within ourselves. 

— Festus. 

Voice of the Holy Spirit, making known 
Man to himself, a witness swift and sure, 
Warning, approving, true, and wise, and pure, 

Counsel and guide that misleadeth none ! 

By Thee the mystery of life is read ; 

The picture-writing of the world's gray seers, 
The myths and parables of the primal years, 

Whose letter kills, by Thee interpreted. 

Take healthful meanings fitted to our needs. 
And in the soul's vernacular express 
The common law of simple righteousness. 

Hatred of cant, and doubt of human creeds 

May well be felt; the unpardonable sin 

Is to deny the Word of God within ! — Whittier, 

God is not dumb, that He should speak no more; 
If thou hast wanderings in the Wilderness 
And find'st not Sinai, 'tis thy soul is poor. 



Slowly the Bible of the race is writ, 
And not on paper leaves, nor leaves of stone ; 
Each age, each kindred, adds a verse to it — 
Texts of despair or hope, of joy or moan. 

— Ja7nes R, LonvelL 



CHAPTEB VI. 



REVELATION THROUGH THE SPIRIT. 

The Spirit is the Quickener. — John vi: 6j. 

When He the Spirit of the Truth hath come, He will guide jou 
into all the Truth . . . and He will reveal to you coming 
events. — yohn xvi: ij. 

The Spirit also helpeth us in our infirmities, for we know not 
how to pray as we ought; but the Spirit Himself intercedeth for 
us with unutterable aspirations. — Rofnans viii: 26, 

But God hath revealed to us through His Spirit, for the Spirit 
searcheth all things, even the deep things of God. — / Cor. ii: 10. 

The manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for useful- 
ness. For to one is given, through the Spirit, the Word of Wis- 
dom ; to another, the Word of Knowledge ; to another, Faith ; to 
another, the Gift of Healing; to another, Miraculous Power; to 
another, the Prophetic Gift ; to another. Discernment of Spirits ; 
to another, various Tongues; to another, the Interpretation of 
Tongues : the one and the same Spirit wields all these same Gifts, 
distributing to each one his own, as He wnlls. — I Cor. xii: 7-11. 

The Spirit is the Witness, since the Spirit is the Truth. — 
/ yohn v: 6. 

. . . Born of the Spirit. Walk in the Spirit. Be filled with 
the Spirit. — John Hi: <?, Gal. v: 16^ Efh. v: 18. 

. . . Our Gospel came not unto you in Word only, but also 
in Power, and the Holy Spirit, and in full assurance. — I Thes. i: ^. 

He having an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the 
churches. — Rev. ii: 7. 

Our sufficiency is from God, who also made us sufficient as min- 
isters of a new covenant, not of Letter, but of Spirit, for the Letter 
kills, but the Spirit quickens. To yap ypccjxjxa ccTCoxreireiy 
TO dk Ttyevjua ^cooTtoiei, — II Cor. Hi: ^-6. 



REVELATION — PROGRESSIVE. 209 

" When the pages of the Bible are opened, they pre- 
sent, not the exposition of a revelation completed, but 
the records of a revelation in progress. Its parts and 
features are seen, not as arranged after their develop- 
ment, but as arranging themselves in the course of 
their development, and growing through stages which 
can be marked, and by accretions which can be 
measured. 

The revealed Truth was one, but the conditions of 
the human mind are infinitely various, and hence an 
endless variety in the development themselves. 

Every age, every church, every sect, every contro- 
versy, in some way or other, contributes something to 
the working out, the testing, or the illustrating of 
some part of the revelation of God. 

The developments of doctrine thus originated were 
the joint product of the revealed Truth, and the con- 
dition of the mind which received it. 

The teaching of the Lord in the Gospels includes 
the substance of all Christian doctrine, but does not 
bear the character of finality. 

The history of the apprehension of Christian Truth 
by man, which commences within the New Testament, 
is continued in the history of the church to the end 
of time; and still, while it is continued, it is in some 
sort a history of progress, and one in which the Spirit 
of God mingles, and which the Providence of God 
moulds. The Truth is not only preserved, but in 
some sense advanced, the definitions of it becoming 



210 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

more exact, the construction of it more systematic, 
and the deductions from it more numerous. 

The Apostolic period is not only a part of the his- 
tory of the apprehension of the Truth by man; it is 
also a part of the history of the communication of 
Truth by God. 

In the Epistles we have the Gospel as it existed 
in the mind of Peter, and of Paul, of James and of 
John. It is thus presented to us in combination with 
the processes of human thought, and the variations of 
human feelings, in association with peculiarities of in- 
dividual character, and in the course of its more per- 
fect elaboration through the exigencies of events and 
controversies.^ 

Christian doctrine does not ground itself on specu- 
lation. It begins from the region and the testimony 
of the senses. Its materials are facts, and it is itself 
the interpretation and application of them. It is, 
therefore, reasonable that the facts should be com- 
pleted, before they are clearly interpreted and fully 
applied. Jesus must have died and risen again before 

I. We are getting to speak less of the inspired hook^ and more of 
the inspired man who wrote it ; the quality or force of inspiration 
lying not so much in the form, or even matter of the thing writ- 
ten, as in the writer himself — his relation to his age, the clearness 
of his thought, the pitch of his emotions, the purity of his spirit, 
the integrity of his purpose. 

The writers of the Scriptures were not automatic organs of the 
Spirit. They were " moved," indeed, but not carried outside of 
themselves nor separated from their own ways and conceptions. 
. . . Before there is an inspired writing there is an inspired 
man, through whom only its meaning can be reached, — Theo. T. 
Munger, — Freedom of Faith. 



BEVELATION — PROGEESSIVE. 211 

the doctrine concerning His death and resurrection 
can be brought to light. Not till the Son of Man is 
glorified, can we expect to arrive at a stage of doctrine 
which shall give all the meaning and the virtue of 
facts, which, till then, were not completed. 

It would be easy to show, that every doctrine ex- 
panded in the Epistles roots itself in some pregnant 
saying in the Gospels, and that the first intimation of 
every truth, revealed to the Apostles by the Spirit, 
came first from the lips of the Son of Man. 

As all the great doctrinal features of the Epistles 
are found in germ in separate sayings of the Lord, so, 
also, the main outlines of the Apocalypse are given us 
in Parables and sayings which trace the future history 
of His kingdom. 

In passing through the Synoptic Gospels we meet 
with few express and definite assertions of the real 
nature and effects of the mediatorial work of Christ. 

The motives which flow from redemption cannot be 
assumed as recognized, because Jesus has not yet 
died; while the life in the Spirit, and the power of 
the Resurrection, and the citizenship in Heaven, can- 
not be realized, because Jesus has not yet revived, 
risen and ascended. 

The forgiveness of sins and the success of prayer 
are intimately associated with the personal agency of 
our Redeemer — the one with His atoning sacrifice, 
the other with His priestly mediation. But it is cer- 
tain, that in His own teaching on earth they are not 
so treated. Luke vi:37; xviii:TSj vii:47. Mcdth. 
ix: 6; xviii: 32; xxviii: 28, 

There is no mention of any intercessor, no typical 



212 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

hint of sacrifice or other atonement, no condition any- 
where supposed, but what is included in — I forgave 
thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me, Matth. 
xviii: 32} — or in the presence of tenderness of heart 
and the absence of an unforgiving spirit towards 
others. Luke vi:37; xviii: 13; xv: 11-32, Yet at 
other times there fall from the Lord's own lips, some 
few words at least, which reveal Himself as the chan- 
nel, and His blood as the purchase of the forgiveness 
which He preaches so freely. Matth. ix: 6; xxvi: 28. 

The burden of the Apostolic preaching is a doctrine 
of redemption by His blood, even the forgiveness of 
sins. In every variety of expression (in the Epistles) 
the reality of the atoning work of Christ is made sure; 
in every connection of thought it is made present. 
Bom. Hi: 25; v: 9-10. Eph. i: 7; ii: 13. II Cor. v: 21. 
Gal. Hi: 13. Heb. ix: 12; xxvi: 28. I Pet. i: 19; ii: 
24. IJohni:7; ii:2. 

The revelation of the great salvation given to us in 
the teaching of our Lord in the flesh is not to be con- 
sidered complete. It has not the appearance of being 
fixed, and it explicitly declares, that it is not complete. 
When it was ended, it was to be followed by a new 
testimony from God, in order that many things might 
be spoken which had not been spoken then. 

The light and witness of the Holy Ghost was re- 
served, not only for secondary matters — details of 
church order, or relations of Jews and Gentiles — but 
rather for the great and central mystery of Godliness, 
embracing the nature, work and ofiice of Jesus Christ, 
His mediatorial relations to the Father and to the 
I. See pages 50-53 of this volume — " Light of Life,''^ 



EEVELATION— PKOGBESSIVE. 213 

church, the redemption of men by His blood, and the 
salvation of men by His life. 'He shall take of mine^ 
and shall show it unto you.^ " 

With these pregnant remarks, culled but not con- 
joined in their original order, from a course of Bamp- 
ton Lectures,^ teeming and suggestive in thought, we 
enter upon the consideration of the specific theme of 
this chapter — Revelation Through the Spirit — and 
specially in its relation to the practical duties of 
Christians in life— domestic, social, public or political. 

"The Light of the World," "The Light of Men," 
about to depart, impressively announced to His dis- 
ciples, as a portion of His precious bequest: — I have 
yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear 
them now — are not prepared spiritually, intelligently, 
to receive them. Howbeit, when He the Spirit of 
the Truth hath come, He will guide you into all the 
Truth. Whatsoever He will hear, that will He speak, 
and He will reveal to you coming events. He will 
glorify Me, for He will receive from Me, and He will 
reveal unto you. John xvi: 12-14, In what manner, 
through what media, but through the mind and hearts 
of believers ? But God hath revealed to us through 
His Spirit; for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, 
the deep things of God. Did our Savior declare, or 
even intimate, that this Spiritual possession, guidance, 
illumination and revelation would be restricted to His 
immediate disciples when in the flesh, or extended to 
those in Apostolic times, and inclusive of all, to the 
end, who would believe on Him through their Word? 

I. T. D. Bernard. — Progress of Doctrine in the New Testa- 
ment. — Bampton Lectures. 



214 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

Assuredly, this Spiritual heritage was pledged to all 
believers in every age. The Spirit has been ever 
since, most impressively, and with great emphasis, 
taking these deep things of God and showing, reveal- 
ing them through the consciousness of believers, as 
they have been prepared and able to receive; bnt they 
have been slow — have sometimes feared — to receive 
and accept the witness of the Spiritual communica- 
tion, because it was not discerned to be literally, spe- 
cifically revealed, or did not seem to be involved in 
the Written Word. The voice from the Word Itself 
is: — The Spirit is the Qnickener, and He is now re- 
vealing in your souls. He is given that we may know 
the things that are freely given to ns by God. I Cor 
ii: 12. While the Godly in all ages have been under 
the regimen of the Spirit as well as the Letter, — the 
merely literal representative of God's will, thought, 
emotion — it is specially true, since the Advent of 
Jesus. Pentecost cannot be forgotten, nor the con- 
stant recognition by the Apostles of His control and 
guidance. They wrought, spoke, went hither and 
thither, as they were directed by Him — giving them- 
selves to His possession, direction and control. It is 
so stated. And it has been under His leadership and 
potency that believers since have marched from tri- 
umph to triumph, from conquest to conquest, to the 
present hour. Some good and stalwart in the defense 
of the Christian Faith have not seemed to fully real- 
ize this fact. They analyze, scrutinize, put to torture, 
the root, each syllable and letter of the Word for the 
etymological or the acquired meaning, inconsiderate 
that such characters are necessarily imperfect, inade. 



BEVELATION THROUGH THE SPIRIT. 215 

quate, arbitrary — ^but signs of ideas, thouglit, emotion, 
which are subtle, delicate in aroma or flavor, having 
the scope of the soul itself. To such the Letter, in- 
considerate of Its association, is infallible without the 
exegesis and illumination of the Spirit. The Apostle 
recognized the supreme importance of such discrimi- 
nation when he declared: — Who also made us sufii- 
cient as ministers of a new covenant, not of Letter, 
but of Spirit; for the Letter kills, but the Spirit 
quickens. The Letter is the fossil of past revelation. 
Idolatry of It, instead of the Truth therein enshrined 
or involved, was the error of the Scribes and Phari- 
sees, and it brought leanness into their souls and 
spiritual destitution to the thirsty, hungry multitudes 
looking to them, the professional expounders of the 
Word of Life, for Its nutriment.^ Papists have 

. . The theology of an age naturally embodies itself in books, 
catechisms or church symbols, where, of course, it remains stereo- 
typed and fixed. In the meantime, however, the living conscious- 
ness of the church ever unfolds as age after age rolls on, and adds 
new experiences of the scope and the power of Christian truth. 
. . . Those, who take their stand pertinaciously upon the formal 
theology of any given period, remain stationary, as it were, in the 
religious consciousness of this period, while that of the age itself 
goes so far beyond them that their theology is no longer an ade- 
quate exponent of the religious life of the times, and can no long- 
er satisfy its just demands. — Philosophy of Religion, — Morell. 

Every letter, every ordinance, organization, that now exists, was 
once a disembodied spirit ; and every thought, sentiment, move- 
ment, which now agitates society, if genuine and destined to en- 
dure, will one day become a letter. — F. H. Hedge. 

Speech [or the Letter] is but broken light upon the depth 
Of the unspoken [or the unwritten — the Spiritual]. 

— Geo. Eliot. — Fedahna, 



216 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

swnng to the other extreme, and made Its interpreta- 
tion, as voiced through Councils or enunciated by the 
Pope, infallible. Tradition, the voice — communis 
sensus — of the church, defunct or living, with them is 
paramount to the Letter of the Truth therein repre- 
sented. If that interpretation was educed through 
the Holy Spirit — manifestly so, instead of being pre- 
determined, party, sectarian; then its guidance might 
be safe for all. Such claims, as indeed all, must be 
submitted to the scrutiny of a human reason for itself, 
illuminated and guided by the Holy Spirit. 

Under this reign, in attempting to execute the Great 
Commission in their various spheres of activity, be- 
lievers are not restricted to the root or the etymologi- 
cal meaning of the Letter, exclusive of Its ramifica- 
tions, and what may be involved in them. The Letter 
cannot be to them a finality,^ otherwise there would 

I. What authority, moreover, can be found in the Bible for assert- 
ing that God has never spoken through any but the canonical 
writers? To my mind, the traces of His holy influence are around 
and about us just as much as ever. If I acknowledge His pres- 
ence in many of the songs of the Psalter, I see it also in many of 
the poems of Cowper and Keble. — Authority and Conscience, — C. 
Morel. 

It does not follow that the canon of Scripture is closed. That is 
a naked and violent assumption, supported by no word of Scrip- 
ture, and justified by no inference from the complete organization 
of the Gospel. . . . No one can be sure that other books of 
Scripture may not some time be necessary. 

We have no lisp of authority for affirming that He never wants 
another book of the Scriptures written, though probably enough, 
He does not.— Z>r. Bushnell. 

I deny that God ran out when the last page of the New Testa- 
ment was written. 

Shall I undertake to say, that the Infinite Truth that is in Jesus 



BEVELATION THROUGH THE SPIRIT. 217 

have been no Christian Presses, Sunday Schools, and 
multitudes of other organizations — missionary or as- 
sociational, for Scientific, Philanthropic and Social 
purposes — in addition to the Christian church. There 
is, besides, an ever-living voice of God out of Nature, 
and of human history, in the consciousness and ex- 
perience of every believer. To each one is given the 
manifestation of the Spirit for usefulness.^ There are 

Christ is, all of it, comprised in the brief and fragmentary histories 
that are contained in the four Evangelists ; that the human life 
has been nothing ; that there is no Providence or inspiration in the 
working of God's truth among mankind ; no purposed connection 
between the history of the world for eighteen hundred years, vital- 
ized by the presence of the Holy Ghost, and those truths in the 
New Testament? All that Christianity has produced is a part of 
Christianity. All that has been evolved in human existence you 
shall find as germ-forms in the Bible ; but you must not shut 
yourselves up to these germ-forms, with stupid reverence merely 
for the literal text of the Gospel. — H, TV. BeecJier. 

There is no claim of finality in the Apostolic epistles. — Ecce 
Deus. 

I believe Bibliolatry to be as superstitious, as false ; and almost 
as dangerous as Romanism. — F. TV. Robertson, 

I. The doctrine of the Holy Spirit is grounded in the primor- 
dial nature of all spiritual beings. 

They are made . . . to be divinely inhabited, made to live 
in eternal inspiration. 

All the workings of the Spirit are inspirations. . . . Chris- 
tian character itself, and all its graces, are forms of inspiration. It 
requires an inspiration, according to the second chapter of the 
First Epistle to the Corinthians, to understand or really to come 
into the truth of Christ at all. Nay, it is even required of us that 
we shall, as disciples, be led of the Spirit, so that He shall be the 
practical guide of life ; which is nothing less than to say, that there 
is an inspiration for every right thing in life. . . . The true 



218 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

hours when, doubtless, all believers receptive are in- 
spired to some extent by Him, as were some primitive 
ones — filled with the Spirit, guiding them into all — 
the needed Truth. 

"Every great and good man possesses some portion 
of God's truth, to proclaim to the world, and to fructi- 
fy in his own bosom. In a true and simple, but not 
the orthodox sense, we believe all the pure, wise, and 
mighty in soul, to be inspired, and to be inspired for 
the instruction, advancement, and elevation of man- 
kind. 'Inspiration, like God's omnipresence, is not 
limited to the few writers claimed by the Jews, Chris- 
idea of Christianity, as a ministration of the Spirit, is, that the dis- 
ciple shall be led out of one moment into the next, through all his 
life, by a present union to God, and a constant guidance ; that he 
shall be the child of the Spirit. 

God has a particular kind of inspiration for every man, just ac- 
cording to what he is, and the uses He will make of him — for the 
tradesman Bezaleel, as truly as for Moses. — Dr. Btislmell. 

. . . One man may find himself preternaturally quickened in 
wisdom, for the benefit of his fellows ; and another, by the way of 
prophecy, become like the mouth-piece of thought from outside of 
this world ; and another, by reason, perhaps, of some personal and 
fitting peculiarity, be known as a channel of healing power for the 
afl[licted ; and still another, from, perhaps, some special susceptibil- 
ity, be remarkable for the faith that will possess him, and through 
him that will strengthen the brethren. — Miracles^ etc. — Motintford. 

Paul spoke of the Spirit of God as given to dwell continually in 
man; to be the source in him of all knowledge, faith, love; the 
strength for all ordinary toils, the Comforter in all sorrows, the 
power of exploring the unseen and the future. — The Religions of 
the World. — Maurice. 

A " spiritual gift " means the faculty in each man in which the 
Holy Spirit reveals Himself. Every man has some such, in which 
his chief force lies ; this is a gift. — F. W. Robertson, 



BEVELATlON THROUGH THE SPIRIT. 219 

tians, or Mahometans, but is co-extensive with the 
race. . . . The degree of inspiration must depend 
upon two things: — first, on the natural ability, the 
particular intellectual, moral, and religious endow- 
ment or genius wherewith each man is furnished by 
God; and next, on the use each man makes of this 
endowment. In one word, it depends on the man's 
Quantity of Being and his Quantity of Obedience. 
Now, as men differ widely in their natural endow- 
ments, and much more widely in their use and devel- 
opment thereof, there must of course be various de- 
grees of inspiration, from the lowest sinner up to the 
loftiest saint. All men are not by birth capable of 
the same degree of inspiration, and by culture and ac- 
quired character they are still less capable of it. A 
man of noble intellect, of deep, rich, benevolent affec- 
tions, is by his endowments capable of more than one 
less gifted. He that perfectly keeps the Soul's law, 
thus fulfilling the conditions of inspiration, has more 
than he who keeps it imperfectly; the former must 
receive all his soul can contain at that stage of its 
growth. . . . Inspiration, then, is the consequence 
of a faithful use of our faculties. Each man is its 
subject — God its source — truth its only test. . . , 
Men may call it miraculous, but nothing is more nat- 
ural. It is co-extensive with the faithful use of man's 
natural powers. . . . Now, this inspiration is lim- 
ited to no sect, age, or nation. It is wide as the 
world, and common as God. It is not given to a few 
men, in the infancy of mankind, to monopolize inspi- 
ration, and bar God out of the Soul. You and I are 
not born in the dotage and decay of the world. The 



220 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

stars are beautiful as in their prime; "the most an- 
-sient Heavens are fresh and strong." God is still 
everywhere in nature. Wherever a heart beats with 
love — where Faith and Reason utter their oracles — 
there also is God, as formerly in the hearts of seers 
and prophets. Neither Gerizim, nor Jerusalem, nor 
the soil that Jesus blessed, is so holy as the good 
man's heart; nothing so full of God. This inspira- 
tion is not given to the learned alone, not only to the 
great and wise, but to every faithful child of God. 
Certain as the open eye drinks in the light, do the 
pure in heart see God; and he that lives truly feels 
Him as a presence not to be put by.' " ^ 

The fact, however, is incontrovertible, that God has 
at remarkable epochs selected certain out of peoples, 
and above all others, particularly among the Hebrews, 
for the reception and conveyance of extraordinary 
messages respecting Himself and His requirements 
from men. Their specific service for this purpose 
was attested commonly by so-termed miraculous 
signs. 

With regard to the crises through which disciples 
would be called to pass in the future. He fore-in- 
structed them: — When they shall arrest you, deliver- 
ing you up, be not disquieted as to what ye shall say, 
nor premeditate upon it; but whatsoever shall be 
given you in that hour, that speak ye; for ye will not 
be speaking, but the Holy Spirit. Mark xiii: 11. 
Matth, x: 19, Luke xxi: 14. Of course, the deluded 
may wrest and prostitute this, as other divine utter- 
ances, for unlawful and pernicious purposes. Doubt- 
I. Theodore Parker; quoted by Greg. 



REVELATION THROUGH THE SPIRIT. 221 

less there have been books outside of the canonized 
sixty-six — many, perhaps, which were indited, to 
some extent, under Spiritual direction. Some, once 
thus recognized by the Godly and the Christly, are 
not now extant. The Pilgrim's Progress was, to some 
extent at least. Spiritually originated. It is believed 
that the Spiritual Invocation, with which Paradise 
Lost opened, was fruitful in the construction and the 
elaboration of that sublime poem, notwithstanding its 
speculations and material conceptions. Such are 
chiefly productions of the imagination, not formularies 
of thought, dogmatic statements — comprising system- 
atic creeds. The imagination was a lens through 
which visions of celestial realities passed into con- 
structed dramas, serviceable to the apprehension, the 
illumination, and the spiritual profit of men. Others 
might be specified, whose intrinsic value and spiritual 
potency have evinced their Spiritual origin, if some 
tender sensibilities would not be disturbed by their 
specification. But what shall be said of those Hymns 
— anthology of divine rapture, of spiritual ecstasy — 
by Watts and Doddridge, Cowper, the Wesleys, Fa- 
ber and Keble, and hosts of other Hymnists and 
Psalmists, which have lifted our souls to Heaven, and 
which the Spirit has honored as instruments in the 
conviction of some, and- for the edification and exalta- 
tion of others? Spiritual pungency and celestial 
aroma seem inherent or inwrought in their literal 
structure. Were they not inspired, and in the high- 
est sense? Is not the music which has been set to 
them by such sweet singers as Bliss, Sankey, and Mc- 
Granahan, of the Evangelical school, not to specify 



222 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

that created by more staid composers — the loftier, the 
sublimer and the dramatic, by Handel, Haydn and 
Beethoven — also inspired? Are they not grand in- 
strumentalities, to be yet more efficiently used for the 
Christianization of the world? The use of Psalms, 
Hymns and Spiritual songs is enjoined for Spiritual 
service — grateful expression to God — and for adora- 
tion of Him. EpK v:19. Coloss. in: 16, Praise 
seems to be, according to the visions of John, the 
chief medium of service and worship in Heaven. 

Certainly, there must be scrutiny (how, save 
through the use of reason?), Spirit-directed and con- 
trolled, lest the subtleties of a finite understanding — 
the prime and hasty conclusion of that fallible reason 
presiding at the inquest, the speculations of a sen- 
suous imagination — ^be taken for a spiritual Apoca- 
lypse. All declarations, imagery and measures not 
based upon a specified " Thus saith the Lord,'' or le- 
gitimately involved therein, must be tested, whether 
they be exclusively, or partially, the creations of the 
Spirit. By what standard? by what test? If they 
be from Him, they will not be antagonistic to Scrip- 
tures — unquestioned in their authenticity and accu- 
racy as God-Inspired, with exegesis the amplest, the 
broadest and deepest, and with as much precision as is 
permissible from the Letter and Its Context, the de- 
sign and structure of the entire Scripture Itself, and 
not without due consideration of the persons by whom 
and for whom It was prepared, or to whom it was ad- 
dressed — their times, localities and environments. 
And, a Scripture God-Inspired, must be compared 
with another from the same or different authors. It 



REVELATION THROUGH THE LETTER. 223 

is evident that the same word, in different books o£ 
the Bible, and sometimes in the same book, original 
or translated, is used in different senses, as the repre- 
sentative of ideas diverse in substance, side or shade 
— for instance, such words as faith, hope, love, law — 
for words are many-sided, variable in tint, and subtle 
in the flavor of the mental state they profess to repre- 
sent. All thought and emotion are thus, and, were 
language adequate, might be unlimitedly varied in 
expression. Words have primary, or etymological, 
secondary and metaphorical meanings, and come, 
often, in time, to lose their original sense; as, for in- 
stance, prevent, convince, provoke, usury, conversa- 
tion, damnation, passion, meat, motions, virtue, and 
thousands of others. 

Though some teachings may not be literally pre- 
scribed, they may be involved in the Letter. No par- 
ticular exegesis is infallible, can be, from various rea- 
sons, besides the accurate ascertainment of the radical 
and etymological meaning; as to the precise thought, 
conception, intention of the Spirit, created in the 
mind of the first human inditer; as to the possibility 
of their precise equivalent being conveyed from his 
spiritual consciousness and realization into arbitrary 
oral or literal signs — human language; thence, by his 
representative ipsissima verba, to the consciousness 
ness and realization of an external exegete; thence, 
from his exegetical verba — having acquired, perhaps, 
a sectarian bias in that transit, to the consciousness 
and realization of his disciple. 

Truth is ever concordant. That which speaks man- 
ifestly out of the material Creation — the subtler gen- 



224 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

eralizations of Science — out of general or individual 
history, through the Spirit in the consciousness or the 
experience of believers, will be harmonious with, will 
be found, probably, involved in some portion of the 
Written Word — therefore not in conflict, as to Letter 
or comprehension. 

Eeason^ is judicial, Will, executive in the councils 

I. By reason, we do not mean mere speculation, nor a formal 
logic, but that full exercise of our nature which embraces the in- 
tuitions, the conscience, the susceptibilities, and the judgment — 
/. g., man's whole inner being. ... If Christianity has any 
human basis, it is its entire reasonableness. ... In the last 
analysis, revelation, so far as its acceptance is concerned, rests on 
reason, and not reason on revelation. The logical order is, first 
reason, and then revelation — the eye before sight. . . . The 
reason believes the revelation, because in itself it is reasonable. 
. . • It is as legitimate for the reason to pass judgment upon 
the contents of revelation as upon the grounds of receiving it: 
they are, in fact, identical. . . . The revelation will be for- 
ever appealing to the reason ; playing into it as flame mingles with 
flame, and drawing from it that which is kindred with itself. The 
inmost principle of revelation is, that the mind of God reveals it- 
self to the mind of man ; and the basis of this principle is, that one 
mind is made in the image of the Other, and therefore capable of 
similar processes of thought and feeling. Revelation is not a dis- 
closure of things to be done, or of bare facts pertaining to eternity, 
but is rather an unveiling of the thought and feeling of God to 
men, in response to which they become sons of the Most High. 
. . . It mav be so sure, that it can justly protest in the face of 
Heaven, '' Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right.?" It will 
be humble, and trustful, and docile, but these qualities are not ab- 
rogations of itself. . . . To ti'ust is a great duty ; but as reason 
has an element of faith, so faith has an element of reason, and 
that element requires that the fundamental verdicts of human na- 
ture shall not be set aside. — Theodore T. Munger, — The Freedom 
of Faith. 



REVELATION THROUGH THE REASON. 225 

of a Soul. It will be admitted, it is presumed, that 
truth could as well be introduced into a human mind 
— indeed must, primarily, be introduced in it before 
its literal expression — hj the Holy Spirit, as into Let- 
ters, clusters of them, or other arbitrary signs; that a 
human reason is, at least, as susceptible of spiritual 
enlightenment and control as are merely literal, im- 
personal, arbitrary representatives of truth; that the 
truth in the first can be, at least, as efficiently wielded 
by that Spirit as in the last; that while the Letter of 
the Divine Word has been dead as a vernacular, for 
thousands of years, an individual reason for itself and 
for its time is alive, energic and flexible. It will 
not be denied, it is also presumed, that the Letter, 
even as originally given, and when it can be accurate- 
ly ascertained (not to refer to its inevitable exposure 
to corruption by transfer, translation, transmission, to 
change of meaning), is but the fossil or the integu- 
ment of the Truth it once embodied or embalmed, or 
still modifiedly retains. It, the Letter, therefore, is 
immobile, inflexible, though the Truth in It may be 
made flexible and all-potent by the Spirit. Now, a 
reason, not abstract, universal reason — the merely 
communis seiisus of collective humanity — but a living 
individual reason in each personality, is ever suscep- 
tible to that Divine potency — made flexible and effi- 
cient by It for any holy purpose at any period of 
time. The question, therefore, for those to determine, 
who decry reason as an exclusively authoritative and 
determinative guide in celestial as well as terrestrial 
subjects, and justly so, since it is fallible, and when it 

Q 



226 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

is not Spirit and Word enlightened, guided and con- 
trolled, and when it has not availed itself of all other 
auxiliary sources of light external to itself, literal, 
natural or moral, experience — general and individual, 
and an all-encompassing, revealing Providence; the 
question is, and with all reverence it is propounded, 
whether that reason — each one's individual reason 
for himself, thus enlightened, is not as safe guide for 
its correlate soul, as a fixed, immobile, unchangeable, 
inflexible Letter, in which Truth was concreted thou- 
sands of years since. If, in the last appeal, there 
must be choice — selection of one, to the rejection of 
the other, as paramount and exclusively authoritative 
— then the arbitrament for each soul will be between 
a Letter, which, thousands of years since, was made a 
concrete of Divine Truth, and is now, as a vernacular, 
dead, which Truth therein the Spirit may unques- 
tionably take and ever wdth almightiness use, and its 
own individual, living, pulsating, flexible reason — lit- 
erally and from all other sources instructed — which 
that Spirit may, with equal potency, wield, and can, 
certainly with greater facility and more directly guide 
into all the Truth, than by indirect communication 
through impersonal representatives — arbitrary signs 
of Truth. 

Passing from the consideration of the instrument- 
ality of the Spirit in the exegesis and illumination of 
literal Truth, let His service in Its revelation from or 
through all other sources, material, intellectual, mor- j 
al, social, political, historical and Providential, and i 
His succeeding application and energizing of It, be j 
briefly considered. He is not exclusively and merely 



SPIEIT EEVELATION IN THE INDIVIDUAL. 227 

an Exegete, but The Quickener. He vivifies, as the 
Anglicised Latin synonym of the original Greek has 
it. He makes alive. Not merely does He resuscitate 
dying Truth — which never dies — and make It ener- 
gic, but He originates out of His own conscious- 
ness — the bosom of the Triune; that is, He introduces 
It as a new life into the human soul. True, the hu- 
man understanding is used instrumentally in Its ex- 
cogitation, and it often, therefrom, imagines that the 
Fire has been struck out of its elemental collisions, 
or is the Offspring of its own travail; but that under- 
standing does not primarily excogitate, originate. 

In presentation of the Gospel message, 'tis 
not enough to remind men of their duty to obey 
God, and to love their neighbor as themselves; 
to impress upon them the necessity of being born 
again, that they may be saved. The tests must be 
applied, whereby they may know, whether or not they 
have passed from death unto life. The Spirit Him- 
self witnesses with man's spirit — bears concurring 
testimony, when he becomes a child of God. Rom. 
via, 16, 'Tis not enough, even, that believers be en- 
joined to seek the afflicted and the poor, for to minis- 
ter out of their abundance or their poverty to their 
necessities, even to the bestowal of all their goods, 
though this Christian work has been too much neg- 
lected by multitudes of professed believers; is one of 
the best evidences of professed regeneration; is cited 
as one of the tests for the heavenly possession, for the 
final discrimination. Men may do all that and more, 
give their bodies to be burned, yet possess not love 
supreme to God, and to one's neighbor as one's self. 



228 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

The substance o£ obedience to the requirements of 
God is Love out of a pure heart, a good conscience, 
and sincere faith — I Tim. i:5 — not a mere emotion, 
philanthropic or Christian, but a sacred determina- 
tion culminating in action — a rule of life. 

Under this Spiritual reign, its subjects will not 
only seek for the material relief, the reconstruction, 
the regeneration, the salvation, the purification, the 
exaltation, the ennoblement of the individual, but of 
society at large, even governments. Christianity is 
always radical. The Spirit sought will guide. True, 
the depravity of the human heart will not be extir- 
pated in this temporal state. It will ever crop out, 
dark, baleful and malign, under the most blessed con- 
ditions. But it can be restrained and ruled — only 
under the regimen of the Spirit. Governments, soci- 
ety, can be reconstructed, as those in the South of 
our Nation have been, though at great cost of suffer- 
ing, and with probably slow advance, under the ap- 
pliance of the test of the law of Love, and that through 
suasion — fruit of gracious influence — not blood. As na- 
tions do not suddenly become corrupt and diabolic, 
from a condition of comparative purity and righteous 
manifestation, so they are not speedily recovered 
from the barbarism or corruption to which they have 
fallen. Metaphorically, nations may be said to be 
born, or re-born, in a day, but their sanctification, 
their Christianization, as with an individual, is pro- 
gressive in the results of years. As such Spiritual 
work proceeds, many of the most fruitful sources of 
pauperism, disease, crime, with their attendant woe, 
would be removed, Power, position, wealth, influence, 



SPIBIT REVELATION IN SOCIETY. 229 

would, as ever, pass into the hands of the intellectu- 
ally strong, the sagacious, and the provident few. 
But under the stimulus of inward conviction, or by 
the pressure of external opinion, they would be moved 
to recognize their Christian stewardship; to rejoice 
m the opportunity of ministering of their abundance 
to the necessities of the needy; and to endeavor to 
lift them up to the level of their material prosperity 
even if they themselves had to descend somewhat for 
the purpose— to level down their own to achieve it. 
"The only true way of getting up is by going down." ' 
ihe benevolence of philanthropists and believers af- 
fords only temporary relief in society; ameliorates, 
does not permanently cure. The plague-spots of dis- 
ease, poverty and vice ever break out with fresh viru- 
lence. One tide of woe passes and another soon suc- 
ceeds. Of course, spiritual reconstruction must com- 
mence with the individual. But society, governments 
must be reconstructed, and as often as wise and safe.' 
Whenever essential injustice and inequality are re- 
vealed-result of statutory enactment or social cus- 
tom-constitutions ought to be "tinkered" in the 
right direction, at every auspicious period, as often as 
necessity requires. Every individual should, by the 
help of Illuminating Grace, so sit in daily inquest 
over his outward conduct and inward life, eradicating 
reforming, regulating, that he may be constantly go- 
ing on to perfection. The Gospel, under this influx 
divine, will conserve men as individuals, and Chris- 
tianize society. 

In complete subjection, or in semi-bondage to irre- 

I. Ecce Deus. 



230 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

sponsible despotism, for the existence o£ which they 
were not responsible, primitive Christians could have 
no hope, during their lives, of seeing such radical 
changes, when the few would cease to batten on the 
many. The leaven of Christianity did not interpene- 
trate and permeate the body politic in their day. 
Christians, then, could scarcely hope to ameliorate 
political, social burdens, much less remove — not at all 
to revolutionize and reconstruct. The day was dark 
indeed — dark as the Egyptian darkness — literal. Spir- 
itual, in the days of Moses. God did not choose, then, 
to cut short His work in righteousness. The Spirit 
said, Bide, Wait, Suffer, Hope for the Future, when 
He will disentangle to human vision this mesh of 
mystery, and dissipate the clouds of His Providence. 
He will be His own interpreter, and He will make it 
plain. The times of restitution will come — in slack- 
ness, perhaps, as men count slowness. But, at the fit 
moment, they will culminate. Nations will be born 
in a day.^ Old dynasties will go down. New ones 
will flame suddenly 

in the forehead of the morning sky .2 

1. There may be, there must be, long seasons of preparation 
for any moral change, but the transition is instantaneous. It is 
the law of revelation. Its way is prepared by the slow processes 
of reason and education, but the revelation itself is quick, immedi- 
ate and not to be traced. Divine truth coines by flashes. The 
heavens open, and the Spirit descends as on the swift wings of a 
dove. . . . We do not so much grow into the possession of 
new Spiritual truths as we awake to them. Their coming is not 
like the sunrise that slowly discloses the shapes and relations of 
things, but is like the lightning that illuminates earth and sky in 
one quick flash, and so imprints them. — Theo. T, Munger. 

2. Lycidas. 



SPIRIT REVELATION IN GOVERNMENT. 231 

Thus have His people always rested. In this age, 
this nation, its citizens are, with some exceptions, 
voters equal before the law, and, therefore, politically, 
socially responsible for the existence and continuance 
of any inhumane or unchristian state of society, polit- 
ical or social. They alone are sovereigns, under God. 
Under such a government, in such a day, with such 
light, American Christians have such responsibility 
with regard to the political and social state as no class 
of believers ever had, and they cannot shrink from 
working directly and with all energy for its thorough 
Christianization. 

In politics, pure democracy alone — not the bastard 
product, the hellish spawn, the Devil-possessed 

License^ thev mean, when thej cry Liberty! 
For who loves that, must first be wise and good.^ 

but that which is subordinate ever to the supreme 
rule of God, where the people are prepared for its en- 
joyment, is consistent with Christianity. Under such 
conditions, despotism, oligarchy, monarchy, hereditary 
or elective, are antagonistic to the Gospel, and ought 
to be destroyed. The writer, however, will not be 
misunderstood. Governments must be adapted to the 
different stages of civilization. Pure democracy is fit 
only for the self -governed, who, above all human con- 
stitutions, fear God, and regulate conduct by His per- 
fect law. Nations in their progress from barbarism 
to civilization, from heathenism to Christianity, are 
like children in their passage from childhood to man- 
hood. The restraint and regimen of the great God 

I. Sonnet — Milton. 



232 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

their Father — embodied in stern decrees, and entrust- 
ed for enforcement and execution to subordinates — 
powers that be, and ordained of God — who should be 
fathers to their respective peoples, not despots, can- 
not be safely removed, only in proportion to the pro- 
gress made in individual self-government, in loyalty 
to God, and in respect of the rights of their neigh- 
bors. A penitentiary is a despotism — a power that is, 
and ordained of God — where the lawless are com- 
pelled by force to do right, and restrained by violence 
from doing wrong. Nations in barbarism or heathen- 
ism would sooner or later exterminate each other — 
under governments milder than despotic. Only 
Christian nations are prepared for the abandon of 
pure democracy, and they imperfectly, according to 
the extent of their Christianization.^ 

I. Constitutions must change. Their only binding force, or 
sacredness, is in the interests thej sustain. When they fail to 
meet the want, they must give way. 

The right to govern does not, universally, rest with the major- 
ity. It is not a question of will, but of interests. The presump- 
tion is in favor of the majority ; but if, at any time, a few can bet- 
ter secure the interests of all, it is their right and duty to do it. 
This is always so in the family, and in the school ; it may some- 
times be so in the state. 

That government is relatively the best which, on the whole, 
best promotes the interests of its subjects ; it may be a democracy, 
a monarchy, limited or absolute, or even a military despotism. — 
Fairchild. — Moral Philoso^phy. 

If we turn our attention to systems of government among men, 
we find that the enlargement of constitutional rights for the 
masses produces very limited advantages, until they are fitted by 
intellectual and moral training to exercise those rights in a judi- 
cious manner. — Triumfli of Good over Moral Evil. 

What is in itself the best form of government.? is alwayi a 



GOVERNMENT RELATIVE — NOT ABSOLUTE. 233 

" In France, democracy will always traverse liberty. 
It brings all right into disorder, and throngh disorder 
into dictatorship. Ask, then, only a moderated lib- 
erty, and attach yourself to that with all the powers 
of your soul." ^ 

This judgment, in their present unevangelized con- 
dition, must be accepted by all careful students of 
these mercurial, volatile, unstable Gauls. Let French- 
men be evangelized, and then they will be prepared 
for the enjoyment of the largest civil and religious 
liberty. Christianity enjoins upon its individual re- 
cipient self-restraint, self-control. With it, on the 
part of, at least, the majority of a population, any na- 
tion can safely be entrusted with republican govern- 
ment. Without it, no nation is prepared for political 
freedom. 

These observations are as pertinent to Spain, which 
Burke in his time spoke of as a "whale stranded on 
the sea-shore of Europe.'' 

question wrongly put. It is equivalent to asking : What is the 
best kind of clothing? — a question which cannot be answered 
without, on the one hand, taking the climate and season into ac- 
count, and, again, the age, sex, and state of health of the individ- 
ual. There cannot be an absolutely form of government, because 
government is something essentially relative. — Strauss. — Old and 
New. 

A time is coming when statute law shall cease, and self-control 
shall supersede all outward or arbitrary law. That will be the 
reign of the saints. — F. W. Robertson. 

2. Cousin's Lectures on the Beautiful. 

Traveling the sad and humiliating journey from anarchy to des- 
potism, and despotism to anarchy. — Thiers. 



234 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

Ay, this is Spain: 
Europe's last land 
'Twill e'er remain ; 
Last in the progress of the earth ; 

The last in liberty ; 
The last in wealth and worth; 
The last in bigotry. i 

Our own country is yet on trial; the problem is yet 
to be solved, whether the Christian element is ade- 
quately pure and potent to control the uncivilized, 
unevangelized millions from the old worlds, already 
here, and which are continually pouring in — an increas- 
ing tide. Let the moral, the political condition of our 
great cities be considered. In Chicago, for instance, 
communists, beer-slingers, apostles and venders of " liq- 
uid fire and distilled damnation," official bribe-seekers 
and takers, most of whom contribute but a compara- 
tive pittance, if any amount, in taxes for the expenses 
of the government, obtain seats in the City Council 
through the suffrages of their adherents — chiefly of 
foreign origin and of recent importation, without 
proper qualifications, property, educational or moral, 
and out-number the representatives of the solid, the 
substantial, the orderly, the moral, the philanthropic, 
the God-fearing classes of the population. All the 
interests of the city, pecuniary, intellectual, moral, 
are sacrificed upon the altars of a self-seeking, God- 
defying coterie. Wholesome statutes enacted for the 
circumscription, hedging in, and the repression, if 
possible, of crime and immorality, cannot be enforced. 
Therefore, Iniquity defiantly shoots forth its hydra- 
head, and violence stalks forth in the streets. Life, 
property, all that is unspeakably precious in morals 

I. Festus. 



SOCIAL JUSTICE. 235 

and religion, are imperilled. Such are some of the 
fruits of unlimited, unqualified suffrage. 

Monopoly cannot be the legitimate inheritance of 
any man or any class — monopoly of the bounties of 
life — wealth, real or personal, station, privilege. Jesus, 
in marked ways, recognized the general equality of 
men, without reference to the distinctions inevitable 
from their intellectual, educational, official conditions. 
He took special interest, not only in the poor, but in 
the outcast, the refuse of society. No being could be 
so depraved, or so fallen, as to forfeit His notice, re- 
gard or sympathy. More: He sought them out, and 
courted association with them. He would not permit, 
without rebuke, one to stigmatize his brother man for 
mental imbecility, so sacred, so revered, with Him, 
was a man. Whosoever, said He, is enraged with his 
brother causelessly — inconsiderately — shall be in dan- 
ger of the judgment. Whosoever shall say to his 
brother, Baca — ^vile, worthless fellow; in negro par- 
lance. Nigger — shall be in danger of the Council; but 
whosoever shall say. Fool, shall be in danger of the 
Gehenna of Fire. Matth. v: 22 ^ Thus did He grade 

I. It is assuredly just that idleness should be surpassed by en- 
ergy ; that the widest influence should be possessed by those who 
are best able to wield it; and that a wise man, at the end of his 
career, should be better off than a fool. But for that reason, is the 
fool to be wretched, utterly crushed down, and left in all the suf- 
fering which his conduct '"^nd capacity naturally inflict? Not so. 
What do you suppose fools were made for f That you might tread 
upon them, and stone them, and get the better of them in every 
possible way .^ By no means. They were made that wise people 
might take care of them. — Ruskin, — Right Use of Wealth. 



236 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

contempt and vituperation. " He censures God who 
quarrels with the imperfections of men." ^ 

Under a republican government, Christianity holds 
its citizens, especially its Christian, bound to wield 
their individual and combined efforts for the removal 
of all barriers to political equality, to institute inqui- 
ries into the causes of the unequal distribution of 
wealth in society, and if they are found in unjust, le- 
gal or social discrimination, sheltered in loose public 
sentiment, or in imperfect legislation, whereby the 
virtuous and industrious poor contend at disadvantage 
for subsistence — to remove them. 

There ought to be some constitutional or legisla- 
tive provision to check at periods the passage of real 
estate from the many to the few, so that God's poor 
and their descendants, not the Devil's, may not be de- 
prived of a spot for a shelter or a home. The Devil's 
poor must take his wages, if they serve him — poverty, 
want, disease, suffering, damnation and Gehenna. 
Surely, the Creator designed that every one should 
have some proprietorship or tenancy in its soil — some 
patch of earth on which he can place his foot and say: 
this, by a permit from God, is for me and mine. It 
must be admitted, however, that, in most instances the 
privation of interest in land is the legitimate, the in- 
evitable result of prodigality and profligacy, or in that 
of ancestry. Such result can be no more averted un- 
der any system of redistribution or compensation, 
than gravitation. The wisdom of God in permitting, 
and in refusing to stay such calamitous and sad re- 
sults — from the free choice of evil, and the voluntary 

I. Burke. 



MONOPOLY — UNJUST. 237 

rejection of good — cannot be impeached. Numbers 
xiv: 18 J Deut v: 9, do illustrate and enforce. It may- 
be, because their cure can be effectually wrought in 
no other way than by suffering. Many descendants 
of such profligates have thus been schooled to thrift, 
who otherwise would not have been trained. 

In England, the land of the kingdom has, from cen- 
tury to century, been concentrating in the hands of a 
few — continually diminishing, so that the bulk of it 
is owned by some 30,000. In Scotland, twelve pro- 
prietors own one-quarter of the whole acreage of the 
country; seventy proprietors own one-half. Nine- 
tenths of Scotland belong to 1,700 persons. It is un- 
just and oppressive, that a few should be exclusively 
endowed with the power, the offices, the movable and 
immovable wealth of a nation; that the right of the 
millions in it — to a proprietorship or tenancy of a 
portion of the soil, be extinguished. Some morning, 
the landed aristocrats of England will wake up and 
find themselves dispossessed, unless they legislate to 
bring about a tendency in the other direction. If 
legislation cannot check and regulate, it would seem 
that there ought to be organic provision in the funda- 
mental law of a nation for the redistribution of land, 
after the lapse of certain periods, as was in the He- 
brew constitution, on the recurrence of the Year of 
Jubilee; or, what would be better, a universal rec- 
ognition of God's proprietorship alone — a resumption 
on the part of society, or of particular nations and 
governments representing them, of their original trust 
as Trustees of earth in His name. In China the land 
13 diyided into three definite classes, by public sur-. 



238 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. . 

vey, SO that a certain quantity of each class can be 
allotted to every family/ 

The proprietorship of this earth is in God alone. 
He grants a leasehold, a mere life-tenure only, to 
men. Society, which endures, though individual 
members of it cease to exist — a particular nation, 
through its governmental administration, might prop- 
erly be regarded as ordained by Him to execute these 
life-tenures on His behalf, requiring only such fee 
therefor, as may be requisite for the conservation of 
society or the maintenance of just government. 

What are the causes of poverty, disease and crime ?^ 

1. Fortune tells us that nowhere in the world are the farming 
population, on the whole, in better condition. 

Six hundred and fifty millions of acres are under cultivation in 
China alone, independent of her colonies. 

Hills are terraced to their tops, millet is sown between mulberry 
trees, cotton in just reaped cornfields. There is no waste of land. 
Weeds, hedges nor fences are tolerated. So wonderfully pulver- 
ized is the soil by incessant hard work, that not a clod can be 
found, after a long rain, in some cultivated districts. 

No person is suffered to go about stirring up the unemployed to 
commit disorder. No one is allowed to keep more land than he 
can keep productively. Large estates are thus prevented, and the 
national stability guaranteed by hosts of small owners. . . . 
One who improves unoccupied land acquires thereby a title in it. 
— Oriental Religions, — Johnson. 

2. In China, when a man has committed a capital crime, a mi- 
nute inquiry is first made into his physical condition, his tempera- 
ment, his mental complexion, his prior acts ; nor does the investi- 
gation stop at the individual — it is concerned with the most incon- 
siderable antecedents of the members of his family, and is even 
carried back to his ancesti*y. . . . The Japanese laws, it is 
said, include in the punishment the parents of the culprit. — Ribot, 
— Heredity, 



BEVELATION IN SCIENCE, HISTORY, PROVIDENCE. 239 

Can they be removed, as well as ameliorated? What 
are the most favorable conditions of health?^ All 
these are legitimate inquiries and themes for Chris- 
tian pulpits, to be discussed in due temper on fit oc- 
casions. The revelations of Science — physical, men- 
tal, social or moral — are to be heeded. They are 
Books of God, new leaves of which are daily unfold- 
ing. The Heavens are declaring the glory of God, 
and the firmament is showing his handiwork. Day unto 
day shall pour out speech, and night to night shall 
utter knowledge. There is no speech, and there are 
no words; not at all is their voice heard. In all the 
earth has gone out their line, and in the end of the 
world are their words. Ps. xix: 1-4, With all such 
declarations is linked this other: The testimony of 
Jehovah is sure, making wise the simple. Ps. xix: 7. 
Thus the works of God, and His word, are univocal 
in their testimony. And there are divine utterances 
in personal experiences, in Providential development, 
in general history. The last book in the arrange- 
ment, if not in origination, of the Biblical Canon is 
the fruit of the Spirit. I was in the Spirit on the 
Lord's Day, declared the writer thereof, as he pro- 
ceeded to disclose his visions of the Future. He hav- 
ing an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto 
the churches — ^is the impressive appeal for attention, 
formally iterated at the close of each ecclesiastical 

I. Christ commands the Christians of this age to investigate the 
causes of all physical evil, to master the science of health, to con- 
sider the question of education with a view to health, the question 
of labor with a view to health, the question of trade with a view 
to health. — Ecce Homo. 



240 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

message, seven times — numerical type of complete- 
ness. It descends through the centuries to the 
churches of the present day with a deeper impressive- 
ness from its seven-fold, melancholy exemplification; 
the solemnity and sorrow gathered in its wail, as it 
swept over the desolation of Asia Minor; the wrecks 
and deflections of Christendom since. 

In these last days, this wonderful apocalypse of 
Truth, ^ out of all spheres of investigation, when the 

I. We are on the verge of a new epoch, when the Spirit of 
God will utilize the accumulated knowledge of the modern age, 
taking up science, art, philosophy, into a higher unity, there to 
make them resplendent with a light which is not their own, and 
the servitors of a more comprehending and adoring faith ; there 
are tokens already, both in the earth and in the sky. — The Heart 
of Christ. — Sears. 

Already signs are visible of a new period, and with its arrival 
fresh impulse will be felt from "the powers of the world to come;" 
and God will be known more dearly, as a mighty fatherly pres- 
ence about us and awaiting us ; and, by every believing heart 
Christ will be more tenderly felt as its personal friend ; and, by 
ivery bereaved and suffering spirit, more vividly still than now; 
and the communion of souls will be felt across the grave. 

There are some important verities in the Scriptures which are 
almost latent at present. And, indeed, truths uttered from the 
Spirit, in human words, or in metaphors derived from nature, 
must always have to wait long before they can commonly be well 
understood, because they are only to be spiritually discerned. 

It would seem as though the marvels which science discovers 
might be but the earthly counterpart of miracles or " signs " un- 
earthly, which denote solemnly the opening of the heavens, and 
that something may be happening, like what was meant when it 
was said, prophetically, that " times of refreshing shall come from 
the presence of the Lord." 

A telegraph office ought to be an huiuble but sufficient hint as to 
the manner in which, through the Spirit, all souls, everywhere, li^ 



THE WOKD OF GOD IS NOT BOUND. 24l 

masses of men are being roused to the consciousness 
of that which most concerns their temporal and eter- 
nal weal, their sovereignty under God, their rights, 
and their responsibilities, Christianity is bound to 
discuss all questions related to them, and to apply its 

open to God and His angels. — -Miracles^ Past and Present. — 
Mountford. 

I believe . . . that, finally, there will enter the world a 
more general, systematic and soundly intellectual conviction re- 
specting all these secret relations of souls to God. — Dr, Bushnell. 

Nor is it at all incredible, that a book, which has been so long in 
the possession of mankind, should contain many truths as yet un- 
discovered. — Butler^ s A^ialogy, 

Religion is utterly incompetent to reform the world, till it is 
armed with some new and mighty power ; till it appears in a new 
and last dispensation. Men are the same they always were ; and, 
therefore, till some wonderful event takes place, their affections 
will be commanded by sense in opposition to faith, by earth in 
preference to heaven. — Jolm Foster. ijgS. 

The hour is fast coming when, under the indisputable teachings 
of science, men cannot trust altogether to the letter of the law ot 
God as we find it in Holy Writ, but must look more for guidance 
to the divine law of his own conscience, which is immutable, and 
not subject to the speculations and hypotheses of translators. — 
John G. Whittier, 

I feel that a great truth is coming. Sometimes it seems as if 
we should have it among us in a day. Many steps of the Temple 
have been ascended — steps of pure alabaster and shining jasper 
also of rough brick and slippery, moss-grown stone. — Mar gar ei 
Fuller. — Memoirs. 

. . . In that gradual unfolding of great truths and principles, 
by which the world's thinking rolls forward to compass its 
nighty results. — Hist. Mod. Phil. — Morell. 

There have been impressions, in extraordinary cases, as well 
without the Written Word as with It. — Oliver CromvjelU 

R 



24:2 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

Ithnriel test. Nothing that is human is excluded 
from, or can be deemed unworthy of the notice of the 
Gospel, or can escape the fiery scrutiny of this Spirit, 
Who will consume the chaff of earth with unquench- 
able fire. The Word of God is not bound. It will 
Kiot be limited by the linguistic pedantries or the the- 
logic bias of exegetes — in a literal statement. There 
are divine statements, though mediate, elsewhere — in 
other Books of God; in the noble impulses of men; 
in the sciences, physical, mental, moral, social and 
political; in history; in daily providences; in individ- 
ual experiences without and within; in the immediate 
revelations of the Spirit to a soul. They are, indeed, 
to be clearly discerned, truthfully expressed, with 
discrimination stated, upon the accurate induction. 
They are to be distinguished from the voices of Evil, 
the hallucinations of the intellect, profane and vain 
babblings, the oppositions of Science, falsely so- 
called — ITim.vi:20 — the impulses of appetite and 
passion. Nor can accurate, exhaustive exegesis of the 
Word be attained, otherwise than through the scrutiny 
of the reason, in the comprehensive sense, under Spir- 
itual guidance. 

Search the Scriptures, is the injunction to all who 
would fully apprehend and comprehend the Truth 
therein contained. The human reason — each individ- 
ual reason — is summoned to exercise, to investigation, 
to scrutiny, to test alleged facts, dogmas and declara- 
tions, to judge what is right. These summons it 
must heed under the light and guidance of the Spirit, 
availing itself of all auxiliary sources of illumination 
external to lifer a^- revelation. Each one must be 



THE VOICES AND THE WOED OF GOD. 243 

ready to give the grounds of his belief, being fully 
persuaded in his own mind. 

This, then, and these are the voices, the Word of 
God that thou art commissioned to proclaim, disciple 
of the Ascended One. Speak It, then, faithfully, 
whether It may be in His oral utterances; they are, 
when we unquestionably have them — that is, the 
truth embodied or represented by them — indeed, 
spirit and life — John vi: 63 — being in languages once 
living as human vernaculars, now dead^ of necessity 
conveyed by men into other tongues for the appre- 
hension of the living; or those which men of God 
spake, moved by the Holy Spirit; those which the 
Heavens declare, day to day and night to night utter, 
whether that which is knowable of God and is mani- 
fested in them — God having showed it unto them — 
the work of the Law written in their hearts, their 
conscience bearing witness therewith, and their rea- 
sonings one with another, accusing or else excusing; 
or those which come to thee or others in daily expe- 
rience; are voiced out of universal history; and, finally, 
those which may come to thee immediately from the 
Paraclete Himself; for such apocalypse is possible to 
him who walks with God, who spiritually is en rappori 
with Him — keeps the door of the heart open to Him, 
for the reception of the Truth. The believer cannot 
too frequently remind himself of the apostolic assur- 
ance, that the Spirit is given to each one for useful- 
ness — even to himself, personally, individually, if he 
will receive. How exceedingly broad, how many- 
tongued is this Word of Spirit expression! There 
are no audible words. There are voices, and there 



244 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

are utterances, unceasing and potent, for the Spiritual 
hearing. The pulsating line of their silent expression 
throbs through the universe of mind. A soul may 
hear, and be quickened, if it will insulate itself from 
earth and apply the listening ear. 

This is that Word thou art called to speak. Thou 
art not competent to speak it at all, of thyself. Thou 
mayest not be endowed or called to speak but an in- 
finitesimal of it. But that Jot or Tittle of it given 
thee by literal teaching, rational apprehension. Spir- 
itual illumination, scientific disclosure, or Providen- 
tial development, thou must declare faithfully. Thou 
speakest one syllable of it otherwise, at thy peril. 

But what avail inadequate words to reach 

The innermost of Truth? Who shall essay 

Blinded and weak to point and lead the way, 

Or solve its mystery in familiar speech? 

Yet, if it be that something not thy own, 

Some shadow of the Thought to which our schemes, 

Creeds, cult, and ritual are at best but dreams. 

Is even to thy unworthiness inade known. 

Thou may'st not hide what yet thou should'st not dare 

To utter lightly, lest on lips of thine 

The real seem false, the beauty undivine. 

So, weighing duty in the scale of prayer. 

Give what seems given thee. It may prove a seed 

Of goodness dropped into fallow grounds of need. 

— Whittier, 



ILLUSTRATIVE AND SUGGESTIVE. 



" The light of the body is the eye ; if thine eye be single, thy 
whole body shall be full of light, but if thine eye be evil, thy 
whole body shall be full of darkness." In this passage, the per- 
ception of truth is clearly shown to depend upon the state of the 
interior moral consciousness, on the power of spiritual intuition. 
" Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see (have a clear in- 
tuition of) God." ^' If any man will do My will, he shall know of 
the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of Myself." 
So, also, in the writings of the Apostles. " The natural man re- 
ceiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolish- 
ness unto him, neither can he know them, for they are spiritually 
discerned. But he that is spiritual judge th all things, yet he him- 
self is judged of no man." 

There must be the awakening of the religious consciousness be- 
fore the Truth is actually revealed to us, and it can only be re- 
vealed to us at all, essentially speaking, in the form of religious 
instruction. 

The actual revelation was not made primarily in the book, but 
in the mind of the writers ; and the power which that book pos- 
sesses of conveying a revelation to us, consists in its aiding in the 
awakenment and elevation of our religious consciousness; » . . 
in giving us the letter through which the Spirit of Truth may be 
brought home in vital experience to the human heart. 

Christianity was revealed to the world long before the New 
Testament was written. . . . The real revelation, in a word, 
was made to their hearts — produced there by the agency of Christ's 
inspired messengers ; but the Word, through God's wisdom and 
mercy, was written in order to be a lasting memorial throughout 
all ages, of the life and teaching of Christ, and a representation of 
the first mighty influence of Spirit and Truth upon the religious 
consciousness of humanity. 

The Bible came forth from the minds of the writers, and it can 



246 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

^nly contain in verbal statement what already existed there as a 
living experience. — Morell. — Philosophy of Religion. 

I think, Sir, when God makes His presence felt through us, we 
are like the burning bush. Moses never took any heed what sort 
of a bush it was ; he only saw the brightness of the Lord. — Adam 
Bede, 

By its very inwardness and closeness to the soul's centre, God's 
Spirit may express itself chiefly in the unconscious attitudes and 
manifestations of the mind especially as it is these that often 
leave the most ineffaceable impressions of character upon others, 
and may, therefore, be the vehicle of a more life-giving power 
than any purposed teaching or more conscious authority. — Jas. 
Mariineau. 

The Spirit works through revealed truth not exclusively, but 
pre-eminently . . . All the agencies of human society whose 
tendency is to educate men — the higher part, at any rate, of men ; 
all men's social relationships, which are normal and virtuous ; all 
men's civil relationships, in which there is power to restrain evil, 
or to incite toward good ; all loves and friendships ; the whole 
round of providences which come to men — these elements are also 
channels, instruments, by which . . . the divine Spirit works 
upon the human understanding and the human heart. 

That part of the Truth . . . which has been cut up into 
law, and which is doing its work in the institutions of men, and in 
their every-day life and conduct, is frequently blessed of the 
Spirit. ... It employs the whole round of nature, which be- 
comes a kind of gospel in the hand of God. . . . There is, 
over and above all these, a direct in-shining, a direct in-breathing, 
a direct in-reaching of the Divine soul upon the human soul. . . 
There are thousands of men and women who come to such a state 
of spiritual purity and spiritual openness that they talk with God 
as friend with friend. . . . Apostles are over and gone. 
Prophets have had their day. It is individual inspiration that 
exists now. , . . There is the revelation of the Divine that 
takes charge of the thought, life, spirit-life of the human race. . , 
There is direct, stimulating, conv^erting, cleansing, enlighten- 
ing influence of the Holy Ghost exerted upon the souls of men. 
It is the hope of the lower classes of mankind. It is God that 



REVELATION THROUGH THE SPIRIT. 247 

worketh in jou both to will and to do of His good pleasure. . . 
He that makes battle for himself hath God on his side. » . For 
the lowest and most desperately wicked men there is hope in the 
Holy Ghost, and none out of it. — H. W, Beecker, 

The Spirit of God lies touching, as it were, the soul of man, ever 
around and near. On the outside of earth man stands, with the 
boundless heaven above him; nothing between him and space, 
space around him and above him, the confines of the sky touching 
him. So is the spirit of man to the Spirit of the Ever Near. . . 
The spiritual in man, by which he might become a recipient of 
God, may be dulled, deadened, by a life of sense, but in this world 
is never lost. All men are not spiritual men, but all have spiritual 
sensibilities, which might awake. All that is wanted is to become 
conscious of the nearness of God. God has placed man here to 
feel after Him, albeit He be not far from any one of them. Our 
souls float in the immeasurable ocean of spirit. God lies around 
us ; at any moment we might be conscious of the contact. — F, W. 
Robertson. 

His thoughts were continually becoming concentrated more and 
more upon the terrible problem of pauperism, before which the 
benevolence of all civilized states stands paralyzed and aghast; 
and he saw more clearly each year that what the times demanded 
was, that the ax should be laid at the very root of ignorance, 
temptation and strife, by substituting for the present unjust and 
unequal distribution of the privileges of life some system of cor- 
dial, respectful, brotherly co-operation. — Memoirs of Dr. Channing. 

On all sides you are told of trickery and oppression and revenge, 
committed in the name of justice; of wrongs endured for want of 
money wherewith to purchase redress ; of chancery suits that out- 
lasted the lives of the suitors ; of fortunes swallowed up in settling 
a title; of estates lost by an informality. And then comes a cata- 
logue of victims — of those who have trusted and been deceived ; 
gray-headed men whose hardly earned savings went to fatten the 
attorney ; threadbare and hollow-cheeked insolvents who lost ail 
in the attempt to get their due ; some who had been reduced to 
subsist on the charity of friends ; others who had died the death 
of a pauper ; with not a few whose anxieties had produced insan- 
ity, or who, in their desperation, had committed suicide. 



248 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

. . . A chancery court which has now more than two hun- 
dred millions of property in its clutches ; which keeps suits pend- 
ing fifty years, until all the funds are gone in fees ; which swal- 
lows in costs two millions annually. — Herbert Spencer. (See 
Jarndyce vs. Jaryndyce, in " Bleak House." — Dickens^ 

Our judicial system is "a technical system, invented for the 
creation of costs. — Sir John Romilly. 

In England, whoever leaves anything, beyond trifling legacies, 
for public or beneficent objects, when he has any near relatives 
living, does so at the risk of being declared insane by a jury after 
his death, or, at the least, of having the property wasted in a chan- 
cery suit to set aside the will. 

When the " sacredness of property " is talked of, it should al- 
ways be remembered, that any such sacredness does not belong in 
the same degree to landed property. No man made the land. It 
is the original inheritance of the whole species. Its appropriation 
is wholly a question of general expediency. When private prop- 
erto in land is not expedient, it is unjust. . . . It is some hard- 
ship to be born into the world, and to find all nature's gifts pre- 
viously engrossed, and no place left for the new-comer. 

. . . The claim of the land-owners to the land is altogether 
subordinate to the general policy of the state. The principle of 
property gives them no right to the land, but only a right to com- 
pensation for whatever portion of their interest in the land it may 
be the policy of the state to deprive them of. 

The land might be occupied for the season only, as among the 
ancient Germans ; or might be periodically re-divided as popula- 
tion increased ; or the state might be the universal landlord, and 
the cultivators tenants under it, either on lease or at will. — ^. S. 
Mill. — Political Rconomy. 

Such a doctrine is consistent with the highest state of civiliza- 
tion ; may be carried out without involving a community of goods ; 
and need cause no very serious revolution in existing arrange- 
ments. The change required would simply be a change of land- 
lords. Separate ownerships would merge into the joint-stock 
ownership of the public. Instead of being in the possession of in- 
dividuals, the country would be held by the great corporate body 



EEVELATION THEOUGH THE SPIKIT. 249 

— society. Instead of leasing his acres from an isolated proprie- 
tor, the farmer would lease them from the nation. — Herbert 
Spencer. 

One-fifth of the population of London are paupers. Ten thous- 
and children under five years of age die annually from hereditary 
debility and incurable diseases induced by want of food. Cases of 
unquestionable starvation are reported every week. — London Cor- 
respondent of Independent. 

The pauper children in England and Wales alone number 300,- 
000. One hundred thousand children wander daily in London, 
without guardianship or shelter, in training for the treadmill and 
the prison. These hundred thousand children live upon the garb- 
age of the markets, and are the children of the factory-bred girls, 
and with their parents herd in common in the slums and back 
places of that city. Twenty thousand thieves find plenty of em- 
ployment, daily and nightly. One person in every one hundred 
and fifty of the population is a forger, a house-breaker, a pick 
pocket, a shop-lifter, a receiver of stolen goods. According to the 
report of the Metropolitan Police, there were no less than 8,600 
prostitutes and 2,825 brothels. In 1867 the number of persons 
proceeded against for habitual drunkenness was 100,357. — ^-^^ 
Seven Curses of London. 

Every twentieth person in France is said to be a pauper. 

Not less than two hundred thousand persons are now within 
sight of our city steeples, who have no work nor real homes, and 
no means which insure them a livelihood. — Ne%v Tork Tribune^ 
Jan. z, i86g. 

Oliver Dyer reported 40,000 destitute and outcast children in 
the city of New York. 

The Koran declares that, " A ruler who appoints any man to an 
office, when there is in his dominions another man better qualified 
^<^ it, sins against God and against the state." — MilU — Liberty. 



What are we set on earth for? Say, to toil — 
Nor seek to leave thy tending of the vines, 
For all the heat o' the daj^, till it declines, 

And Death's mild curfew^ shall from work assoil. 

God did anoint thee with His odorous oil, 
To wrestle, not to reign ; and He assigns 
All thy tears over, like pure crystallines. 

For younger fellow-workers of the soil 

To wear for amulets. So others shall 

Take patience, labor, to their heart and hand, 

From thy hand, and thy heart, and thy brave cheer, 

And God's grace fructify through thee to all. 

The least flower, with a brimming cup, may stand, 

And share its dew-drop with another near. 

— Mrs. E. B. Browning. 

I would only say, work — work in silence at first, in silence for 
years — it will not be time wasted. Perhaps in all your life it will 
be the time you will afterward find to have been best spent ; and 
it is very certain that, without it, you will be no worker. You 
will not produce one "perfect work,'^ but only a botch, in the ser- 
vice of God. — Florence Nightingale. — To Lefnuel Moss, 

If I were to choose a preacher for myself, holding the question 
as a mere question of talent, I should first of all inquire into the 
talent of his heart — whether that light is in him which shines only 
into the heart ; and then, a long time after, I w^ould begin to in- 
quire after his capacities of science, speculation, understanding — 
in a word, his head. 

How often do we see, that a very ordinary preacher, as regards 
what men call eloquence, is yet a great and powerful minister of 
God.— Dr. Bushnell. 

In the Kingdom to come we shall not have the anomalies w»nch 
now prevail. Men are ministers now who are fit only to plough ; 
men are hidden now in professions where there is no scope for 
their powers ; men who might be fit to hold the rod of empire are 
now wearing the cloth. — F, W* Robertson, 



CHAPTER VII. 



THE DIVINE CALL. 

Follow Me, and I will make you Fishers of Men. — MattJi. iv: 79. 

For he is My chosen instrument. — Acts ix: ij. 

To constitute thee a minister and a witness, both of those things 
which thou hast seen, and of those which I will cause thee to see. 
— Acts xxvi: 16, 

We are ambassadors, therefore, on behalf of Christ, as though 
God were entreating bj us ; we beseech jou on behalf of Christ, 
be reconciled to God. — // Cor. v: 20, 

Jesus saith to Simon Peter: Simon, son of John, dost thou love 
Me more than these .^ He saith unto Him: Yea, Lord, Thou 
knowest that I love Thee. He saith unto him : Feed Mj lambs. He 
saith to him again the second time: Simon, son of John, dost thou 
love Me.^ He saith unto Him: Yea, Lord, Thou knowest that I 
love Thee. He saith unto him : Shepherd My sheep. He saith 
unto him the third time: Simon, son of John, dost thou love Me.'^ 
Peter was grieved because He said unto him the third time: Dost 
thou love Me.'' And he said unto Him: Lord, Thou knowest all 
things; Thou knowest that I love Thee. Jesus saith unto him: 
Feed My skee;p. — John xxi: iS-i7» 

All men are called to glorify God, to speak His 
word, according to their capacity, vocation and oppor- 
tunity. But out of every age He has summoned some 
professionally to declare that Truth. Jesus, to select 
ones, in audible human tones said: Follow Me. I 
will make you Fishers of Men. He is still calling, 
and to many, through His Spirit. These summons 



252 THE LIGHT OF LIFE, 

are very potent in souls. Kedeemed one — ^poor sin- 
ner, snatched thyself from the eternal burning, lovest 
thou Me? Speak to lost men. Feed My lambs. 
Shepherd My sheep. Such apostrophe to love; such 
appeal to gratitude; such touch of heart and con- 
science to the quick; such imperative behests, cannot 
he overborne. They will not down at the bidding of 
any resisting agency, human or diabolic. They will 
speak, and keep pressing. As burning fire shut up 
in the bones, they will be, md, resisted, will eat their 
way through. Resist not, neglect not, select one, this 
divine, this gracious call in thy soul! 'Tis the voice 
of thy Savior. 'Tis the urgency of the Spirit. HeeJ, 
obey, and thou shalt be blessed. They that be wise 
shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and 
they that turn many to righteousness as the stars, 
forever and ever. Dan. xii: 3. And they shall be 
Mine, saith the Lord of Hosts, in that day when I 
make up My jewels, and I will spare them, as a man 
spareth his own son that serveth him. Malaclii Hi: 17. 

All believers are select Heralds of Salvation. The 
Commission was originally to all. For you all can 
prophesy — one by one — exhort or preach, that all may 
learn, and all may be comforted. I Cor. xiv:31. 
There is a potency in speech, but a mightier one in 
a Godly life. There are diversities of gracious Gifts, 
but the same Spirit. Diversities of Service, but the 
same Lord. Diversities of Power, but the same God, 
Who worketh all in all. The manifestation of the 
Spirit is given to each one for usefulness. I Cor. xii. 

Officers of Education societies and of Theological 
seminaries make much use of the Sander's exclama- 



THE CALL AS UNIVERSAL AS SPECIAL. 253 

tion with, respect to the paucity o£ Spiritual laborers 
in His time, as applicable likewise to this age, and as 
a basis from which to enforce their plea and appeal 
for the rousing of the slumbering preaching gifts in 
the churches — that they be consecrated and sent forth 
into the great harvest field of the world. Unques- 
tionably, with regard to Heathendom, and to many 
portions of Christendom, the use of this majestic 
plaint of Jesus is pertinent. Where there are hun- 
dreds, there should be thousands, who would esteem 
it an exalted privilege to receive a summons from 
their Master to go into all the world and to preach 
the Gospel to every creature, in the literal, in the 
practical, the exemplifying sense. Still, it is not so 
much a priesthood or ministry, such as officially min- 
ister at the altar on behalf of the people, as a sancti- 
fied laity — Godliness, Christ-likeness, in every Chris- 
tian believer, to whatever vocation by natural gift or 
culture called. The Papal church has ever been most 
industrious and vigilant in the search for, and in the 
consecration of such ministerial gifts — neglecting the 
higher imposition upon it of taking care that novi- 
tiates, on their first application for membership, evi- 
dence their Spiritual transformation through Divine 
Grace; and that they are assiduously trained, by 
sanctifying appliances, for the higher departments of 
Christian life. The result has been, that wherever it 
has prevailed, mendicant friars have swarmed. The 
declaration of Jesus is as pertinent, if not more so, 
with regard to the comparatively few laborers among 
the laity. Indeed, it is not believed that His remark 
was intended to have any discriminate, special refer- 



254 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

ence. If such, is the fact, there ought not to be any 
narrow, class application of it.^ The world may need 
more professional laborers in the field, but, it is be- 
lieved, it needs, much more, toilers among the com- 
mon membership; a more general consecration of the 
gifts of all believers to the service of God, — that is to 
say, it needs, much more. Godly men in all the secu- 

I. Four hundred thousand angels blowing truuipets for a fool 
would not give hin;i a right to preach ; and without a trumpet, 
without a call, a man that has got it in him, and loves men, and 
understands what is for their welfare, and is willing to tell them 
of it, has a right to preach. The whole matter is ab simple as 
common sense itself. 

Every man who loves the Lord Jesus Christ has a right, in his 
own way, and for himself and family, to employ those symbols 
for the uses for which they were instituted. If it can be done bet- 
ter and more effectively in the household, the right is there. If it 
can be more beneficially administered in the brotherhood, the arti- 
ficial family, the church, the right is there ; but the church does 
not own it any more than it owns the Bible ; and the church has 
no more right to take it away from the laity than it has to take the 
Bible away from the laity ; and there is nothing in it to make it 
necessary that a minister should administer it any more than it is 
necessary that a minister should read the Bible and explain it. — 
H, TV. Beecher. 

Paul in two of his epistles, when sending the salutations of the 
churches, makes mention of "the church in the house" of Aquila 
and Priscilla, and that, too, with no intimation, that " church " in 
the latter case is used with any unusual latitude of signification. 

Every Christian at the head of a family is authorized of God to 
teach in His name and to command in His name. Such a person 
is, by the anointing of the Holy Ghost, constituted prophet and 
king (paternal king, of course) of the household. And he may no 
more neglect the one office nor abdicate the other, than may a 
constituted pastor disregard his sacred obligations Nay, more, 
the family is the nearest type of heaven of any institution on 



THE CALL AS UNIVERSAL AS SPECIAL. 255 

lar professions, so that all business shall be holy unto 
the Lord; that it be conducted on Christian princi- 
ples, with love of one's neighbor as of one's self. It 
needs thorough, symmetrical Christians in families, 
on the streets, in the marts of trade, in the counting- 
room, in the bank, in the workshop, in all the learned 
and secular callings, as in the pulpit; on every day of 
the week, as on the Lord's day. It needs, that practi- 
cal Christianity shall be illustrated in all the depart- 
ments of society, in every phase of human life; and 
to this, and to the mass of believers, the Savior had 
reference mainly, more than to the comparatively few 
oi3S.ce-bearers and spokesmen of the consecrated hosts 
of God's elect.^ Every one of the original twelve He 

earth, and beyond what is true of any other living being, the parent 
represents or misrepresents the Father above. 

Therefore let it be knovv^n, that every Christian family is by di- 
vine appointment a religious institution, a constituted church, vs^ith 
its own worship, its own ordinances, and its own sacraments also. 
And let every believing father or mother, husband or wife, as 
need may require, appropriate the privilege. — Moses Smithy in 
Advance. 

Any believer is competent to act as an ordinary minister^ accord- 
ing as convenience may require, provided only he be endowed 
with the necessary gifts ; these gifts constituting his mission. . . 
It is also competent to him to administer the rite of Baptism, inas- 
much as the latter office is inferior to the former. . . . The 
privilege of dispensing the elements at the Lord's Supper is con- 
fined to no particular man or order of men. — John Milton, — Chris- 
tian Doctrine, 

I. Let colleges exist for the purpose of scholarship, let theol- 
ogy even be taught to all who wish to study that greatest of the 
sciences ; . . . but do not continue to multiply a class of able 
and worthy men — having no adaptation to the public work of the 



256 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

sent f ortli, though their individual gifts were diverse 
and unequal. The persecuted disciples, on their dis- 
persion from the Jerusalem center, went everywhere, 
preaching the Word according to their individual 
gifts — not merely in set discourses, to the delivery of 
which certain Apostles alone, by natural ability, hu- 
man culture, or gracious endowment, were competent 
— ^but in simple exhortation, incidental and informal 
converse by the wayside and in the daily journeys of 
life, in families, in their secular vocations. 

This result, it is believed, was in accordance with 
the design, express intent of the Great Commission; 
not merely that a comparatively few, on whom of3S.cial 
hands have been laid in ministerial ordination, but 
that all who bear His name, and love Him — all, in 
every department of life, male and female, husband 
and wife, sons and daughters, mechanics, tradesmen 
— ^persons of all professions, to whatever business 

ministrj. . , . He is not a mt'mster because he has completed 
a prescribed curriculum ; he may be a scholar, a theologian, a 
critic. . . . Adaptation to the ministrj is quite a distinct 
question. . . . My call is not for a learned ministry, but for a 
learned church. . . . Popularize, not professionalize theolog- 
ical education. 

To my own mind, it is perfectly clear, that a considerable pro- 
portion of the young men who, during the last five and twenty 
years, have undergone preparation for the ministry, would, to-day, 
have been doing much more good had they never aspired to the 
pulpit. — Ad Clerum. — Parker. 

I do not forbid you to preach, but both Nature and Grace do. — 
A Bishojf to a Candidate. 

I have seen so much of the trials and responsibilities of mission- 
ary labors, that I am unwilling to urge any one to assume them. 
The tiYgin^ must come from a higher source, — Adonivam yudson^ 



THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. - 257 

called, in whatever position or office, sacred or secular, 
public or domestic, fiduciary or politicaP — should 
^^ occupy'' to the weal of men and the glory of God; 
each is to preach the Gospel to every creature in 
his sphere and calling, and according to his special 
endowment. 

But God calls some professionally to be apostles, 
teachers, missionaries, preachers, expounders of the 
Word — oral and editorial — summoning them to be 
wholly consecrated to such work. Are all thus called? 
No. Why? Because, doubtless, they are not by na- 
ture or grace endowed for such special work. Let be- 
lievers be careful to ascertain their particular gracious 
call. Let none mistake the cry of ambition for God's 
voice in the soul; a natural gift for a gracious endow- 
ment; a gracious endowment, even, for a prophetic 
summons and the highest call. It is surprising, not 
only that so few appreciate the divine privilege and 
heed the summons, but that so many, with such fa- 
cility, haste to assume such, without evident commis- 
sion. Ambition, self, love of place and power — others 
call them, not God,^ His Spirit or His Providence, nor 

1 . Whose heart soever God has touched with a spirit of benev- 
olence is ordained to go forth into society and preach the Gospel 
to every creature, each man speaking in the language of his own 
business. — H. TV. Beeclier^ in Norwood. 

2. When he leaves that parish for another, he says God has 
called him to another field of labor ; and the dismissing council 
says. Amen. But all it really means is, that the people are tired 
of him, or he of them ; or his salar>^ is small ; or the house is 
damp, and the situation unhealthy; or he wants to live in a city; 
or preach his old sermons ; or have a wider scope. God calls him 

S 



258 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

a passion for souls; they call themselves. The old 
prophets, conscious of their insufficiency, as will be 
all true messengers of God, shrank from the position, 
and from the delivery of the messages enjoined, as 
"burdens," because they were, and ever must be, of- 
fensive to transgressors. Tet if any one aspires to be 
a bishop — if the love of Christ constrains, he desires 
a good work; yet to the office he may not be called. 
"Who is sufficient for these things?^ Ah, who? The 
divinely-called messenger of Jesus will very often 
find occasion to sympathise with the wailing prophet. 
Woe is me, my mother, that thou hast borne me a 
man of strife, and a man of contention to the whole 
earth. Jere, xv : 10, Yet it is, likewise, woe to him 
who, having been commissioned, dares to be recusant 
or recreant to his trust. He that hath My Word, let 

to go just where the minister thinks, on the whole, he would 
rather go. If one or the other candidate should be defeated at the 
next election, it would be God calling him to another field of la- 
bor. There is no reason to suppose that the Deity is not just as 
much concerned with the shoemaker Avho moves from Lynn to 
Boston, in prospect of higher wages, and better lectures and con- 
certs, as with the minister who moves from Boston to New York. 
God calls us all, and in only one way — by the use of our reason 
[Spiritually guided?] ; and it would be just as pious, and a great 
deal more savory, if we would speak of it in a reasonable, and not 
in a supernatural way. — Gat'l Hamilton. 

I. Without treasure of thoughts, without solid convictions, 
without a feeling of strength, with nothing but feverish haste and 
that poorest of gifts — the gift of words, flattening and belittling bor- 
rowed thoughts, some leap into the pulpit, as if it were heroic 
rather than foolhardy to take responsibilities to which they were 
not equal ; as if a call consisted of bold desire. How unlike the 
Divine Master! — TJieo. D, Woolsey. 



TO EACH ONE, HIS GIFT AND CALL. 259 

him speak My Word faithfully. What is the chaff to 
the wheat? saith the Lord. Jere, xxiii: 28, "When 
God commands to take the Trumpet to blow a dolorous 
or a jarring blast, it lies not in man what he shall say, 
or what he shall conceal." ^ It becomes, then, one 
professedly sent from God, not only to speak with 
fidelity, symmetry and graveness becoming the mes- 
sage he delivers, but to take care that his life com- 
ports with it. 

Eyery believer has his gift, and his call for its con- 
secration. There ought to be no mistake as to Ms, 
" To every one his own " — his peculiar gift. It must 
be consecrated. It may be one, five or ten talents; 
most probably, most commonly one^ but it is one — 
silver-like or gold-like — a talent, and sure to become 
shining, if well used. The trouble with most is, they 
despicably bury because it is only onCy or mistake the 
possession of one for five or ten, and thus make them- 
selves a spectacle — from which all the wise and good 
turn with averted eyes. All, also, have their oppor- 
tunities. They are also talents, often very weighty 
for good, very momentous for their own or others' 
weal. Opportunities are for those who watch for 
them. Woe to him who fails to discern them, and to 
improve! They never return! An ancient once sent 
up a wail, Perdidi diem — I have lost a day! He 
knew it would never return; that it had been freighted 
with golden opportunities, but gone forever! Wake, 
Soul Immortal, to thy possibilities and opportunities! 

Every one should do what he is specially ordained 
to do. What that may be cannot fail tg be discerned 

I. Milton. 



260 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

by wise knowledge of one's self, his capabilities and 
his deficiencies, and by noting Providential indica- 
tions. It may be to be active or passive, but not to 
be idle or indolent; to speak or to be silent, to move 
forward or to stand still, waiting patiently for the 
Providential voice, — Do this special service, or do 
that He must do something, for it is ''reserved to 
God and angels" only "to be lookers on" — and even 
they must be exceedingly active, energic; for God 
reigns, and the glorified "rest not, day nor night," in 
His service, doing their work. The Divine Exemplar, 
as in all other phases of life, has given us the ex- 
ample. "Mine hour is not yet come'' — not exclusively 
with reference to His tragical passion, but the hour 
for each special word or work. For every deed, for 
every utterance, each disciple has his hour, and must 
patiently bide its coming. Bide^ man, thine hour. 
Seize thine opportunity. 

O heart, be true ! 

True to thyself and to thy God, 

Though all around thy path may change, 

Though oft the road that thou hast trod, 

To those that hear no guiding word 

Seems hard and strange ; 

Whatever else the whole wide world may do, 

Be true, O heart, be true! 



It was not His look, nor His declamation, nor His fine periods; 
it was not even His prodigious weight of matter; but it was the 
sacred exhalation of His quality, the aroma, the auroral glory of 
His person ; this it was, that quelled the marshal and his posse, 
and sent them back to make return, not that He could not be 
found, but that He was too great and awe-inspiring to allow the 
touch of their hands. 

One who can be unified with God by his faith ; . . . one 
who knows God as he knows his friend, and by closeness of in- 
sight gets a Christly meaning in his look, a divine quality in his 
voice, action visibly sw^ayed by unknown impulse, imagination 
that is apocalyptic, beauty of feeling not earthly, authority flavored 
by heavenly sanctity and sweetness, argument that breaks out in- 
to flame, asserting new premises and fertilizing old ones, more by 
what is put into them than by what is deduced from them. Such 
a man can be God's prophet ; that is to say, he can preach. 

A man's atmosphere is the mysterious eflflux, exhalation, serial 
development of his personality. — Dr. Bushnell. 

In proportion as the spiritual gains predominance over the ma- 
terial in our nature, does not the soul take possession of the body, 
shine through its features, attitude, looks, and reveal itself to those 
whom words cannot reach.? What faith in God and virtue may a 
tone express ! — Dr, Ckanning. 

It was said that the face of Keble in his later years was like that 
of an illuminated clock; the color and kindling had long faded 
away from the hands and figures, but the ravages of time were 
more than compensated for, by the light which shone from within. 
—H, P. Liddon, D, D. 



CHAPTEB VIII 



THE TREASURE IN EARTHEN VESSELS. 

We have this Treasure in earthen vessels. — // Cor. iv:y. 

Present jour bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto 

God — ^your reasonable service. — Rom. xii: i. 

The body is . . . for the Lord, and the Lord is for the 
body. . . Know ye not that your bodies are the members of 

Christ? . . Know ye not that your body is a Temple of the 

Holy Spirit, which is in you — which ye have from God — and that 
ye are not your own ? 

Glorify God, therefore, in your body. — / Cor. vi: ij-20. 

The Treasure — all treasure of Truth, all intellectual 
and spiritual treasure — is in earthen vessels. This, 
on the human side, was as true with respect to Jesus 
as it was to His disciples. He was, indeed, "God 
manifest," but "in the Flesh." As the Divine Man, 
He spoke to men. In the study, therefore, of Him, 
as the Great Teacher, His material presence can be, 
by no means, ignored or unconsidered. It must have 
been impressive and attractive. The original r^vkocve 
in the statement of Luke implies a rapid, luxuriant 
and symmetrical growth of the physical organism to 
its maturity. Physical and spiritual energy devel- 
oped apace with each other, for He waxed strong in 
spirit, filled with wisdom, and the Grace of God was 
upon Him. There can be no mistaking the evident 
indication of vigorous physical development in the 



THE HUMAN FORM DIVINE. 263 

metaphorical word TtpoenoTtTe, Jesus increased in 
wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men. 
Luke i:80; ii: 40, 52, Those physical attractions, 
which impress, and secure the favor of men, waxed 
apace with the spiritual graces of the Son of God. 
There was, doubtless. Providential design in the 
omission of the sacred historians to delineate the per- 
son of Jesus at His maturity, to record the precise 
day of His birth and of His death. Modern biogra- 
phers would have been careful to detail minutely per- 
son, build, complexion, tones, expression, gesture, 
gait, costume and habits. Indeed, historical paint- 
ings are deemed incomplete without such minute de- 
lineation. The Apostolic Fathers left no intimation 
on the subject. In the fifth century, Augustine said: 
"The real features of the Virgin, as of our Lord, were 
unknown." ^ Some assume that the person of Jesus 

I. Nicephorous, quoting from a description given by John of 
Damascus, in the 8th century, says, that He resembled the Virgin 
Mary ; that He was beautiful and strikingly tall, with fair and 
slightly curling locks, on which no hand but His mother's had 
ever passed, with dark eyebrows, an oval countenance ; a pale and 
olive complexion, bright eyes ; an attitude slightly stooping, and a 
look expressive of patience, nobility and wisdom. — Farrar'^s Life 
of Christ. 

The vivid and particular description of His person — found, it 
was said, in an ancient manuscript — by one Publius Lentulus, an 
alleged President of Judea, in a communication to the Senate of 
Rome, is not regarded authentic : — 

" There has appeared in our times a man of great virtue, named 
Christ Jesus. . . . He is a man of lofty stature, beautiful, hav- 
ing a noble countenance, so that they who look on Him may both 
love and fear. He has wavy hair, rather crisp, of the color of 
wine, and glittering as it falls down from his shoulders, with a 



264 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

must have been inferior, from the prophetic descrip- 
tion in Isaiah 53d. That refers, it is believed, to the 
inferiority with which He would appear to the Jews, 
when they set His parentage, birth, residence, occu- 
pation and ignominious death over against His as- 
sumed Messiahship, in connection with the require- 
ments of His teaching and practice — oppugnant and 
repugnant to their pre-conception and anticipations 

parting in the middle of the head, after the manner of the Naza- 
renes. His forehead is pure and even, and His face without any 
spot or wrinkle, but glowing with a delicate flush. His nose and 
mouth arc of faultless beauty. He has a beard abundant and of 
the same hazel color as His hair — not long, but forked. His eyes 
are blue and very bright. He is terrible in rebuke, calm and lov- 
ing in admonition — cheerful, but preserving gravity He has 
never been seen to laugh, but oftentimes to weep. His stature is 
erect, and His hands and limbs are beautiful to look upon. In 
speech. He is grave, reserved and modest, and He is fair among 
the children of men." 

Celsus, of the second century, in his scurrilous assault upon 
Christianity and its Founder, remarks : " How could the Divine 
body fail to excel others .^ But His, in no respect, did thus excel; as 
Christians themselves say, It was small, uncomely, and without 
nobility," Of this Celsus, Neander, in his history, says: "Wher- 
ever he thinks the evangelical narratives can be made to answer 
his purpose, he considers their authority to be unimpeachable ; but 
when they refuse to lend themselves to his polemical interest, he 
denies their truth " And respecting this particular statement, he 
adds • " He lays hold of the -wholly unfounded tradition respecting 
the uncomeliness of Christ's person, to represent it as inconsistent 
with the supposition, that Christ partook of the divine nature be- 
yond all other men ;" . . . " which tradition had grown out of 
the idea — pushed to the extreme — of Christ's appearance in the 
form of a servant, and literal interpretation of Isaiah 53." 

Patient, collected, clear-faced, large-eyed — eyes that looked full 
upon you ; not piercing, or searching, as if seeking to know, but 



THE HUMAN FORM DIVINE. 265 

of Him. There was but little correspondence between 
their Ideal Christ and Jesus of Nazareth. Hebrews, 
with Gentiles, had associated mental and spiritual 
power, capacity to lead and teach, with favorable ac- 
cidents of birth, auspicious social position, and, espe- 
cially, imposing physical stature. But such expres- 
sions as the following, from those who "had heard," 
"seen," conversed with, and "handled Him" in the 
Flesh — granting that they refer more to His spiritual 
nature and presentment than to His physical — are 
most significant and precisely in accord with natural 
presumption as to His bodily presence: "The Word 

with a comprehending gaze, as if He included, and understood 
fully, every one that He looked upon, and needed not that any 
should tell Him what was in man. — H, W. Beecher. 

There is a calmness, a steadiness, in the character of Jesus, a 
naturalness in His evolution of the sublimest truths under the 
strain of the most absorbing and intense excitement, that could 
come only from the one perfectly trained and developed body, 
bearing as a pure and sacred shrine, the One Perfect Spirit . . . 
able to walk and teach all day,, and afterwards to continue in 
prayer all night, with unshaken nerves, sedatelj^ patient, serenely 
reticent, perfectly self-controlled — walked the earth, the only man 
that perfectly glorified God in His body no less than His Spirit. — 
Atlantic Monthly^ J^fy-, 1866^ f 9^. 

Jesus was of stately growth, with eyebrows that joined together, 
beautiful eyes, curly hair, in the prime of life, with black beard, 
and with a yellow complexion and long fingers like His mother's. — 
St. John of Damascus., in 8th Century. 

In appearance He was base. — Clemens of Alexandria. Without 
beauty. — Justin Martyr. His body was small, ill-shapen and ig- 
noble. — Origen. His body had no human handsomeness, much 
less any celestial splendor. — Tertullian. — Cited by Farrar. 

The Talmud recognizes Jesus as a youth of great beauty, elo- 
quence and promise. — C. E. Stozve. Atlantic Monthly^ June., i86s* 



266 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

was made Flesh." "The Image of God." "We be- 
held His Glory." "The Form of God." "The very 
Stamp of His Substance." "The Effulgence of His 
Glory." "The Glory of God in the face of Jesus 
Christ." " For in Him dwelleth all the Pleroma of 
the Godhead bodily." 

It is not probable, that the Divine "Treasure" was 
shrined in an inferior or repulsive earthen vessel, 
dwarfed or gigantic. It is evident, from every con- 
sideration, that God would manifest Himself in a 
symmetrical organization, if not the finest possible. 
If He was indeed " manifest " in an ordinary, unsym- 
metrical or diminutive body, surely the Divine would 
have triumphed over the human — ^been unimpeded 
by the infirmities of the flesh, would have quickened 
the body with intense vitality, and moved it with su- 
perhuman energy. What energy was possible, latent 
and reserved in Him, may be apprehended from that 
manifestation He made of it when He expelled the 
money-changers from the Temple; when the crafty 
dignitaries wilted down and hasted away from His 
glance; when the minions of the hierarchy sent to ar- 
rest Him, at one time, and the squad of Roman sol- 
diers at another, fell back, appalled at His majesty. 
The bodily Temple must have been aglow with the 
fire of the Divine Indweller. All corporal expression, 
all speech, must have betokened divine impulsion. It 
could not have been otherwise. True, a diminutive 
physical organization, or one dwarfed, shrivelled or 
enfeebled by disease, seems sometimes to be Titanic 
under the enginery of an indomitable will — a grand 
soul. An attenuated frame, a hollow cheek, a sunken 



THE HUMAN FORM DIYINE. 267 

eye, tones tremulous in weakness, or under the stir of 
inward emotion, give potency to speech, as they did 
to that of Fisher Ames on the British Treaty. Jesus 
was the manifestation of God in the flesh. Divinity 
must have shone through it, revealed itself in the 
gait, loomed up in grandeur through the head; looked 
out of eyes — full-orbed and piercing, ravishing in 
love, scathing, withering in condemnation; would 
have been discerned in every lineament, shifting line 
of thought and emotion; spoken in every utterance. 
Those eyes must have beamed with intelligence, been 
lit up with rapture — oinquestionably did melt in ten- 
derness, sympathy, pity, love, as they met those of a 
loved or an afflicted one; or flashed in holy indigna- 
tion, when they encountered those of a deceived or de- 
ceiver, flaunting self-righteousness or hypocrisy in 
cast, tone and robes before Him, and wilted them 
down. Guilty souls ever shrunk from the scrutiny of 
such eyes divine. 

Striking incidents in His intercourse illustrate and 
corroborate the belief. His countenance, doubtless, 
was flexible to the expression of every emotion; His 
gestures commanding and benignant; the tones of 
His voice melodious; all His movements, it may be 
supposed, were in accord with His divine assump- 
tion. To connoisseurs of physical beauty, it, doubtless, 
would have been worth a circuit round the globe to 
be permitted to look upon the outward form of the 
Man Divine; to gaze into His divine eyes; to listen 
to His mellifluous utterances; to feel the pressure of 
His divine hand. The personal presence of such a 
Being must have had much to do with the attractive- 



268 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

ness of His teachings. It must have been a privi- 
lege, indeed, to see, hear, to touch the hand of Jesus 
in the Flesh. 

It is not surprising, then, that the weightiest woes, 
passing into funereal wails were pronounced over the 
people of Capernaum, among whom He dwelt, for 
their indifference to His presence — their deliberate 
rejection of Him as the anticipated Messiah, and their 
personal Savior, after such frequent, gracious homi- 
lies to them, and the working of such stupendous 
deeds daily before them — on their streets and in their 
synagogues. "Passing through the midst of them, 
went His way." "Some of them would have arrested 
Him, but no man laid hands on Him." "The Phari- 
sees said unto the officers: Why have ye not brought 
Him?" "The officers answered: Never man spake 
like this man." "As soon as He had said unto them, 
I am He, they went backward, and fell to the ground." 
All such incidents are indicative of the majesty of 
His personal presence. 

Now, though the physique of men is the last, in 
importance, to be considered in the category of min- 
isterial gifts, as an agency of power in the ministry it 
is not to be disregarded. We have this treasure in 
earthen vessels. Men cannot look, as does God, into 
the heart, but are impressed, favorably or unfavorably, 
by external manifestations. The entirety of the phy- 
sical organization speaks. Every organ, every mus- 
cular motion have their articulate voices. These, 
though subtle and indefinable, are no less potent. The 
habitudes of thought or emotion will, in a very few 
years, be revealed through the physiognomy. The ec- 



THE PHYSIQUE AS AN AGENCY OF POWER. 269 

clesiastical cast of assemblies is often thus indicated, 
as well as by costume and speech. There seems to 
be affinity between certain cerebral organizations — 
temperaments and creeds. Truth is many-sided; of 
infinite sides; is spherical. Diversities in creeds have 
come mainly from mental diversities, as well as from 
diversities in religious culture — truth being variously, 
sometimes diversely, and only partially discerned on 
those many sides. But education, unquestionably, 
has its moulding power. Sydney Smith, who hated, 
as an ecclesiastic, all dissenters, expressed much 
truth, though in a caricature, when he declared, with 
reference to a certain sect: " The very character of 
the English face is altered; for . . . transforms 
the countenance so certainly, and almost as speedily, 
as sottishness or opium. Go to their meeting-houses, 
. or turn over the portraits in their magazines, and it 
will be seen that they have already obtained as dis- 
tinct physiognomy as the Jews or the Gipsies — coarse, 
hard and dismal visages, as if some spirit of darkness 
had got into them, and was looking out of them." ^ 

I. Hugh Miller tells us of a community of native Irish, who, 
two hundred years ago, were a fine ^ type of men, but, being cast 
out of their native seat and subjected to various untoward condi- 
tions, have now come to have crooked and stunted forms, project- 
ing mouths, retreating foreheads — almost caricaturing human na- 
ture. — Burr, — Temptation to Unbelief, 

Each religious sect has its physiognomy. The Methodists have 
acquired a face ; the Quakers a face ; the nuns a face. An Eng- 
lishman will pick out a dissenter by his manners. — Eiiierson. 

His delivery in the pulpit was the worst I ever met with. Such 
tones never came from any human voice within my hearing. He 
was the very ideal of bad delivery. Then, I must say, the matter 



270 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

Smith had not the candor, nor the manliness to ad- 
mit, that the major part of this physiognomic trans- 
formation might be attributed to bodily hardships 
and mental trial, to the gripe of early poverty — pro- 
tracted to maturity, and to the depression of corre- 
sponding social position; that, too, in conjunction 
with the distorting or the debasing influences of pre- 
vious unregenerate life. To such privations, and to 
such disadvantages, Smith had been a stranger, and 
for those who, out of such tribulation, entered upon 
the Christian life, it is feared, though a clergyman, 
he had but little sympathy. 

It is, therefore, a source of encouragement to those 
believing themselves to be called to the ministry, de- 
nied by nature of an impressive or attractive physique, 

was often as uninviting as the manner. He carried his principles 
out to their full extent. . . . Add to all this : — his manners 
had a bluntness, partly natural, partly the result of long seclusion 
in the country. . . . But he had a true benevolence, and what 
is more worthy of being noted, he was given to a facetious style 
of conversation. — Dr. Channing on Dr. Hopkins. 

. . . His pale, thin face, and tall, emaciated form, seemed, as 
he spoke, to be glowing as alabaster glows when lit up by an in- 
ward fire. And, indeed, brain and heart were on fire. He was 
being self-consumed. Every sermon in those latter days burnt up 
a portion of his vital power. Weakness of body made him more 
excitable, and every excitement made him weaker. — Biography of 
F. W. Robertson. 

The old, hackneyed story ; not a new anecdote, not a single re- 
flection of any value ; but the manner, the manner^ the delicate in- 
flections of voice, the elegant and appropriate gesture, the sense of 
beauty produced by the whole, which thrilled us all to tears, 
flowing from a deeper and purer source than which answers to 
pathos. — Margaret Fuller on Everetfs Eulogy of Lafayette, 



REALIZATION OF THE GRAND IDEAL. 271 

that a soul disciplined, sanctified, purified — expand- 
ing under the messages of salvation — may give to a 
body a power and impressiveness, corresponding 
somewhat to the dignity o£ the position and the im- 
portance of the truth they undertake to proclaim. A 
warm, earnest heart, with a grand theme, will make a 
plain intellect effective in a feeble organization; will 
reveal itself attractively in any organization, however 
feeble. "Let no man despise thee," said the royal 
Apostle to Titus. Let no vices of your mind defile 
that which God has made the Temple of the Holy 
Spirit. So demean thyself, internally and externally, 
in every circle, at home, in public, in social inter- 
course or public manifestation, as to enforce respect. 
Think nothing, desire nothing, say nothing unworthy 
of thy sublime vocation, and men will ever do thee 
homage.^ Fail not to heed, that the fires of unlawful 
desire, unlovely, unchristian emotion — their habitual 
indulgence will inevitably leave the scars of their rav- 
ages on the physiognomy. "Let no man despise thy 
youth." Let thy personal presence, Timothy, thy de- 
meanor on all occasions, especially in the pulpit, 
under the expansion of the messages thou dost de- 
liver, and the exalted position thou wilt occupy — 
though young, bear the impress of manhood, the dig- 
nity of a Christian minister. Covet earnestly the 
best gifts — intellectual, educational, spiritual, in de- 
livery, in demeanor; disregard none of these means 
to influence, and these instrumentalities to power 
among men; earnestly desire them all; strive for 

I. Fear God, and where you go, men shall think thej walk in 
hallowed cathedrals. — Emerson. 



272 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

their attainment; make the most of thyself, young 
man of God, of thy position, on every occasion, ex- 
alted to be an ambassador of Jesus Christ. 

In intelligent communities, in large cities, where 
concentrate the keenest and best trained minds, 
where men are stamped somewhat according to their 
measure, weight or worth, it is supposed, there would 
be the most correct estimate and appreciation of the 
best ability in the pulpit. It is not always so. Pre- 
tension often passes for merit; profession for posses- 
sion; sound for sense; verbosity for thought; decla- 
mation for logic ; lungs — "the voice and nothing 
else" — for brains; fine build, agreeable person, mag- 
netic address, pleasant elocution, mellifluous utter- 
ance, dexterity in collocation of substance or verbiage, 
fore-fronted with audacious assurance and assumptive 
manner, for intellectual strength, " Sons of Thunder," 
so-called, fervid declaimers, will generally secure 
larger and more appreciative audiences, of the shal- 
low and the superficial, than profound thinkers, dis- 
passionate reasoners. Ideas by them, if there be any 
well conceived and tangible, are spun out into fila- 
ments of words, or diluted to infinitesimal weakness 
in the wordy fluid. A thinker like John Foster or 
Coleridge, a theologian like Jonathan Edwards, a 
brilliant expositor like the author of Ecce Deus, a 
passionate Christologist and cogent logician like F. L. 
Patton, in pulpit utterances, attract only compara- 
tively small audiences, while admiring thousands 
hang upon the oratory of Whitefield — his earnest ap- 
peals, abrupt transitions, startling imagery, sublime 
jEipostrophe^ vivid description, tragic action, and 



IMPEESSIONS ARE ETERNAL. 273 

attend his dramatic triumphs from shore to shore. 
The voice from all this to the student of sacred ora- 
tory is: — since very many hearers are swayed by pre- 
vious pre-judgments for or against a speaker; by 
impressions from attractive or unattractive physique; 
by good or bad elocution; by poverty or wealth of 
language; by gracefulness or awkwardness in delivery 
and gesture; by the transient, accidental associations 
of the locality, the occasion and the hour; by the state 
and the receptivity of their own minds and hearts 
when they hear, in very many instances, more than 
by the intrinsic value of the speaker's talent, and the 
weight of his message, it is of the highest importance 
to him who has consecrated himself with all his 
powers to the master work, as a profession and life- 
business, of endeavoring to induce men to give heed 
to the commands of God, the Gospel of His Son; that 
he should give proper heed to these things — triviaL 
sensuous and transient as they may seem; nothing, 
however, is trivial, nothing is transient; ^ impressions 
on the soul are eternal;— that he may be most suc- 
cessful in his mission. The expression of an eye, the 
quivering of a muscle, the sway of the body, the em- 
phasis of gesture, the weight and potency of a word 
or a sentence, tone and inflection, combined attitude 
and expression, are powers in speech. But absorption 
with the message itself, completely mastered, is of 

I . Did we know it rightly, nothing is trivial ; since the human 
soul, with its awful shadow, makes all things sacred. . . . You 
are living your daily life among trifles that one death-stroke maj 
make relics. — Minister's Wooing. 

T 



274 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

the first and last importance. Without it, aspirations 
for, and attempts at oratory end in mechanical pos- 
ture, empty chattering, soulless elocution. The mes- 
sage apprehended, its potency inwardly experienced, 
delivery, though hesitating, struggling for adequate 
expression, cannot fail to be effective. Out of un- 
gainly person, awkward posture, unsightly action, 
stammering tongue, hesitating, limping, blundering 
speech, jagged tones, the fire of conviction will leap, 
and into the souls of hearers. Personal defect, fault 
in delivery will be forgotten under the inspiring 
spell. The speaker will seem charged with spiritual 
power — luminous with light. Hearers will be fired 
to heroic endeavor, and will cry out, as did the Cru- 
saders under the spell of Peter the Hermit: "God 
wills it;" or of Whitefield: "Take to the life-boat!" 
"Good God! He is gone!" 

When all the graces of oratory spring out of a 
strong, well-disciplined and richly-stored mind, 
throned in attractive person — quickened, stimulated 
to expression by a message sent from God — then 
speech becomes a divine prophecy, effective to the 
highest degree. If the gifts of Daniel Webster, or 
those of Edmund Burke, had been consecrated to the 
ministry, what magnificent harvests, under Grace, as 
we, in our poor arithmetic, compute, might have been 
gathered into the garners of the Lord. But not 
many wise after the flesh, not many mighty, not many 
noble are called. God has chosen the foolish of the 
world to shame the wise, and the weak has He chosen 
to shame the strong; also has He chosen the ignoble, 
the abject, and the unknown, to humble the distin- 



GLOBIFY GOD IN THE BODY AS IN THE SPIBIT. 275 

guished, that no flesh could boast before Him. The 
treasure is put into earthen vessels. Jesus is made 
unto us wisdom from God, righteousness, sanctifica- 
tion, and redemption; that according as it is written, 
He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. I Cor. 
i: 26-30. In Whom all the treasures of wisdom and 
knowledge are hidden. Coloss, it: 3. In everything, 
His messengers are enriched by Him in all speech 
and in all knowledge. I Cor. i: 5, 

And every virtue w^e possess, 
And every virtue w^on, 
And every thought of holiness, 
Is His, and His alone. 

Nevertheless, these inferior elements are not to be 
despised. Nor does it follow, because, as a historic 
fact, that not many wise men after the flesh; not 
many mighty or noble, even when evincing that they 
had been born again, preferred the heavenly vocation 
to a secular; it does not follow, that the great intel- 
lectually might not, if called, and sanctified, be potent 
for the eternal weal of men, somewhat in proportion 
to their weight of talent; otherwise, it would seem that 
the Spirit could not, or would not, work as efficiently 
through the strong, well-disciplined and well-stored 
mind, as through a feeble, uncultivated and barren 
one. Whatever thy gifts are, in what bodily presence 
shrined, give heed, elect man of God, to the solemn 
interrogations from Heaven: Know ye not that your 
body is a Temple of the Holy Spirit? and that the 
Spirit of God dwelleth in you? Ye are not your own. 
Ye were bought with a price. Therefore, in your 
ministrations, glorify God in your body, as well as in 
your spirit, which are God's. 



ILLUSTRATIVE AND SUGGESTIVE. 



" Who in presence are base among you." ..." For his let- 
ters, they say, are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is 
weak, and his speech despicable. . . . Let such an one con- 
sider, that such as we are in word, through letters when absent, 
such are we also in deed, w^hen present. But though I be plebeian 
in speech, yet am I not in knowledge. — II Cor. x: i, jo-ii ; xi: 6. 

This is supposed to have reference to the very diminutive and 
crooked form, and the ungraceful deportment of the apostle; . . 
to the weak, shrill voice, and defect in enunciation. — Bloomjield. 

And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with the excel- 
lency of speech, or of wisdom, proclaiming unto you the testi- 
mony of God. . . . And I was with you in weakness, and in 
fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching 
was not with persuasive words of man's wisdom, but in demon- 
stration of the spirit, and of power. — / Cor. it: 1-4. 

There was a tradition that Paul was low in stature, crooked in 
form, and bald-headed. Some suppose, from Galatians 4: 15, that 
his eyes were diseased. 

That dwarfish, bald, stammering man. — Recreations oj a Country 
Parson. 

. His stature was diminutive, and his body disfigured by some 
lameness or distortion, which may have provoked the contempt- 
uous expression of his enemies. His beard was long and thin. 
His head was bald. The characteristics of his face were: — a trans- 
parent complexion, which visibly' betrayed the quick changes of 
his feelings, a bright grey eye, under thickly overhanging, united 
eyebrows, a cheerful and winning expression of countenance, 
which invited the approach and inspired the confidence of sti*ang- 
ers. — Conyheare a7id Hoivson. 

Paul was, we are told, short in stature, almost bald, bow-legged, 
stout, with eyebrows meeting, and with a prominent nose. Other 



THE TREASURE IN EARTHEN VESSELS. 277 

accounts add, that he had small but piercing grey eyes. , His man- 
ner was, it is said, singularly winning. His face and figure must 
have been remarkably of Hebrew type. — Acts of the Apostles. 

Paul was small in size, and his personal appearance did not cor- 
respond with the greatness of his soul. He was ugly, stout, short, 
and stooping, and his broad shoulders awkwardly sustained a little 
bald head. His sallow countenance was half hidden in a thick 
beard, his nose was aquiline, his eyes piercing, and his eyebrows 
heavy and joined across his forehead. Nor was there anything 
imposing in his speech, for his timid and embarrassed air gave but 
a poor idea of his eloquence. — Renan. — The Apostles. 

The most emphatic revelations of the soul are made through 
glances of the eye. By the looks, only, can the soul signify com- 
plex experiences— hope, fear, yearning love, sad and sorrowful — 
and all in an instant. The revelations of the soul's inmost life will 
not be incarnated in the rude materials of common language. 
But a look is almost as immaterial as a thought. A glance is a fit 
incarnation of a thing so tender as love. Not what they say, do 
we remember of absent friends, but how they looked while saying 
it. We live upon the meaning of the expressions of the face more 
than of the tongue. The silences which speech carries along with 
it are often more emphatic than words. . . Words are of the flesh ; 
looks are of the spirit. — H. W. Beecher. 

The eye, the tone, the smile help words that are spoken. . . . 
A tone would do more than all syntax to give the meaning Of 
some doctrine. — Ecce Deus. 

Her appearance had nothing prepossessing. Her extreme 
plainness — a trick of incessantly opening and shutting her eyelids 
— nasal tone of her voice — all repelled. 

Her face beamed, and the young people came away delighted, 
among other things with "her beautiful looks." When she was 
intellectually excited, or in high animal spirits, as often happened, 
all deformity of features was dissolved in the power of the expres- 
sion. — Emerson on Margaret Fuller. 

There is in every human countenance either a history or a 
prophecy, which must sadden, or, at least, soften every reflecting 
observer. — Coleridge. 

Amazing is the power of sound ; it searches the soul more than 



278 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

than the vision ; it vibrates and reverberates ; sound more imme- 
diately and more deeply penetrates. Nothing presented to the 
eye tingles along the blood like things presented to the ear. 

Earnestness 'creates earnestness in others by sympathy ; and the 
more a preacher loses and is lost to himself, the more does he gain 
his brethren. — Dr. Newman. — Lamps^ Pitchers and Trumpets. 

In some remarkable manner, everything about Hall, all he does 
or says, is instinct with power. Jupiter seems to emanate in his 
attitude, gesture, look and tone of voice. Even a common sen- 
tence, when he utters one, seems to tell how much more he can 
do. — John Foster, 

The speaker who will impress us most is not the man that is 
thinking about himself and his eloquence, or even that makes us 
think about him and his eloquence ; it is the single-minded, ear- 
nest-hearted man, whose end is to convince you ; in whose mind 
his subject has increased till it looks like all the world, and himself 
decreased till he has dropped utterly out of sight. — Thoughts of a 
Country Parson. 

What is said is the least part of the oration. It is in the attitude 
taken, the umistakable sign, never so casually given, in tone of 
voice, or manner, or word, that a greater spirit speaks from you 
than is spoken to in him. 

There lies the burden on his mind — the burden of truth to be 
declared — more or less understood ; and it constitutes his business 
and calling in the world, to see those facts through, and to make 
them known. What signifies that he trips and stammers ; that his 
voice is harsh or hissing ; that his method or his ti-opes are inade- 
quate.'' That message will find method and imagery, articulation 
and melody. Though he were dumb, it would speak. If not — if 
there be no such God's Word in the man — what care we how 
adroit, how fluent, how brilliant he is.? — Emerson on Goethe, 

In the reading of a great poem, in the hearing of a noble ora- 
tion, it is the subject of a writer, and not his skill — his passion, not 
his power, on which our minds are fixed. We see as he sees, but 
we see not him. We become part of him, feel with him, judge, 
behold with him ; but we think of him as little as ourselves. — 
Ruskin, — Poetry, 



Tones and looks do much ; yes, and the having a meaning in 
you is also a great help ! ... Is not this the end of all speak- 
ing, and wagging of the tongue in every conceivable sort, except 
the false, and accursed sorts .^ . . . Art of Speech? Art of 
Speech? The Art of Speech, T take it, v^ill first of all be the art 
of having something genuine to speak! ... I have heard 
speakers who gave rise to thoughts in me they were little dream- 
ing of suggesting! Is man then no longer an ^'Incarnate Word," 
as Novalis calls him — sent into this world to utter out of him, and 
by all means to make audible and visible what of God's message 
he has ; sent hither and made alive even for that, and for no other 
definable object? Is there no sacredness, then, any longer, in the 
miraculous tongue of man? Is his head become a wretched 
cracked pitcher, on which you jingle to frighten crows, and make 
bees hive? He fills me with terror, this two-legged Rhetorical 
Phantasm! I could long for an Oliver without any Rhetoric 
at all. 

To show ME what thou seest, what is in thee ; why else should 
one human being dare to wag his tongue to another? It is frightful 
otherwise. — Carlisle, 

Know your fact ; hug your fact. For the essential thing is heat, 
and heat comes of sincerity. Speak what you do know, believe, 
and are personally in it, and are answerable for every word. Elo- 
quence is the power to translate a truth into language perfectly 
intelligible to the person to whom you speak. — Emerson. 
Truly our business is to speak Things. — Oliver CromvjelL 
The best method of preaching is, to gather your materials and 
set fire to them in the pulpit. — Ad Clerwn, — Parker. 



CHAPTEE IX. 



THE ESTHETICS OF SPEECH. 

The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I 
might know how to strengthen with a word the weary. — 
Isaiah I: 4. 

A word spoken in season, how good it is ! — Prov. xv : 2j. 

A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver. 
— Prov, XXV : 11. 

I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves ; be ye there- 
fore wise as serpents and guileless as doves. — Matth. x : j6. 

Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that 
ye may know how ye ought to answer each one. — Col. iv : 6. 

Sound, irreprehensible speech. — Titus ii: 8. 

If any man errs not in word, the same is a perfect man — able to 
curb also the entire body. — James Hi: 2, 

He spake to them many things in Parables. — Matth. xiii: j. 

Therefore, every Scribe, who has been discipled into the King- 
dom of Heaven, is like unto a householder, who bringeth out of 
his treasury things new and old. — Matth. xiii: ^2. 

Wonderful is human speech — that which most dis- 
tinguishes man, intellectually, vocally, from the brute, 
and lifts him toward the angels. Thought, will, de- 
sire, emotion, through it find expression, as best they 
can, in the travail of the soul. But fluency therein 
does not necessarily indicate strength, fertility, or 
wisdom — more likely shallowness, sterility, folly. The 
silent, the reticent, the hesitant, who think much, say 
little, are the most reliable and substantial. There is 



WOBDS SHOULD REPRESENT THINGS. 281 

more potency in the monosyllables of some, than in 
the orations of others.^ 

What the silent Princes of Orange did, both in 
Holland and England, what did Oliver Cromwell, the 
world knows. " There is no silence like the speech 
you cannot listen to without danger of locked-jaw," 
and "here is a man whose word represents a thing." ^ 

1. A Lacedemonian was fined for saying that in three words 
which might have been expressed in two. — 

There is a reason assignable, not only for every word, but for 
the position of every word. — Coleridge, 

A phrase may outweigh a library. . . . There may be 
phrases which shall be palaces to dwell in, treasure-houses to ex- 
plore ; a single word may be a window from which one may per- 
ceive all the kingdoms of earth, and the glory of them. Often- 
times a word shall speak what accumulated volumes have labored 
in vain to utter ; there may be years of crowded passion, and half 
a life in a sentence. — Atlantic Monthly^ Afril^ 1862, 

2. Carlisle's Cromwell. 

This, indeed, is what speech is for — to make the statement; and 
all that is called eloquence seems to me of little use, for the most 
part, to those who have it, but inestimable to such as have some- 
thing to say. 

It is much less difficult to find out what to say, than what to 
leave unsaid. — Dr. Emmons. 

The talker is to my mind, by necessity, the smallest of human 
souls. His soul must ever dwindle, dwindle, dwindle, for he utters 
great feelings in words instead of acts, and so satiates his need of 
utterance, the need of all. — F. W. Robertson. 

Through every clause and part of speech of a right book, I meet 
the eyes of the most determined of men ; his force and terror in- 
undate every word ; the commas and dashes are alive ; so that the 
writing is athletic and nimble — can go far and live long. — Emer- 
son on Goethe, 

I have no faith in artificial eloquence. Teach men to think and 



282 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

The windy Long Parliament has gone its way; this 
man's silence, hesitancy, jagged speech passed into 
most heroic deeds — the grandest achievements. He 
made the English history of his time. He became 
the central figure in Europe. 

A profound thought struggles for utterance. 
Language is often inadequate to express it. The 
sprite, tone, or flavor of a subtle, refined, del- 
icate sentiment or emotion cannot be expressed in 
words. Necessarily, much that is recondite and in- 
volved must remain unexpressed. The recipient mind 
alone can interpret it. Many are able to speak well, 
few the right word at the right time. All proverbs 
recognize these canons of wise and effective speech. 
"There is a time to speak and a time to be silent." 
"In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin; 
but he that refraineth his lips is wise." "Answer not 
a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his 
oAvn conceit." "Speech is silvern, silence is golden." 
"Their strength is to sit still." The salvation of 

feel, and, when they have anything to the purpose to say, they 
can say it. — Dr. Nott, 

I always halloo when I haven't anything to say. — Lyma7i 
Beecher. 

Dr. Hawes used to give Dr. Emmons the credit of having 
molded his style of preaching by a single criticism. He had read 
him a composition which was exuberant with rhetoric. Dr. Em- 
mons' comment was: "Joel, I kept school once. When I 
whipped the boys I always stripped the leaves off the rod " — and 
he drew an imaginary rod through his fingers by way of illustra- 
tion. — Parli's Memoir. 

When you have anything to say, say it ; and stop when you get 
through. — Dr. Witherspoon. — Bib. Sac. July., i8';^o. 



THE SPEECH OF JESUS. 283 

many a nation and many a man, in the time of per- 
plexity and trial, lias been in sitting still, in silence 
and inactivity. They stood and waited. 

"Never man spake like this man" — not only as to 
originality, strength and grandeur of thought, but 
also as to its delicacy, grace, fitness, pertinency. " I 
have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot 
bear them now." Give not that which is holy unto 
the dogs, neither cast your pearls before the swine, 
lest they trample them under their feet, and turning, 
rend you. Mattli, viz: 6, When the Scribes and 
Pharisees sinisterly brought an adulteress for adjudi- 
cation, at first He was silent. But as they pressed 
Him, He smote them with the catapult of the sen- 
tence, quietly ejaculated, but swift, irresistible, anni- 
hilating in execution. He that is sinless among you, 
let him first cast the stone upon her — No more. The 
smitten went out, one by one, the highest to the low- 
est, " convicted." Lifting Himself, seeing no one but 
the woman. He inquires: Where are thine accusers? 
Hath no one condemned thee? Nor do I. Go. 
Sin no more. John viiL 

Herod and Pilate were both awe-stricken by that 
same august silence, broken only by the monosyl- 
lables: "Thou hast said it." Whose words are the 
fewest, the most resembles God. " I think," said 
Cato, "the first virtue is to restrain the tongue; he 
approaches nearest to the gods who knows how to be 
silent, even though he is in the right." Jesus was re- 
served in His confidences, and yet how fully He 
poured out His heart to His loved ones, at times! 
Must He not have been what He claimed He was? 



284 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

ShoTild not His disciples strive to approach such a 
divine self-mastery, such a regimen of the tongue ? 

" If you your lips 
Would keep from slips, 
F/ive things observe with care ; 
Of whom you speak, 
To whom you speak. 
And how, and when, and where." 

The great Apostle, who had sat at the feet of Ga- 
maliel — embodiment of lofty personal dignity, and of 
royal attainment in Hebrew lore — that Apostle, who 
was himself Prince in effectiveness of, if he was 
"plebeian" — plain or unadorned, as he meant — in 
speech, exhorted believers at Colosse to let their 
"speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that 
they might know how to answer every man." And 
again to Titus, that he should exhort young men, 
among other things, to shew themselves, in teaching, 
incorrupt, grave, sincere, unassailable; with sound, 
irreprehensible speech. Such importance did he at- 
tach to speech, even in the familiar converse of life, 
on what may be deemed trivial, and from the hum- 
blest believer. Speech indicates the man — the pro- 
fessedly regenerate as the unregenerate. As a mas- 
querade, it cannot abide. The soul will reveal itself, 
consciously or unconsciously. Out of the abundance 
of the heart the mouth speaketh. ^nd by thy words 
thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt 
be condemned. Matth. xii: 34-7. 

Some suppose that strong speech is necessarily as- 
sociated with, if not inseparable from, rough, coarse, 
indelicate expression and boisterous tone. Real 
strength is in the bare thought, bodied in the com- 



THE SPEECH OF PAUL. 285 

prehending and properly located words/ no more, no 
less, uttered with simplicity as well as earnestness, 
with dignity and tone in accord with the subject and 
the occasion. If the address and attitudes of Jesus 
or of Paul, so far as they are revealed or inferred, be 
scrutinized, no tumidness in speech or carriage, coarse- 
ness, indelicacy, impropriety, unsightliness or extrav- 
agance in utterance or tone can be detected. There 
was always the most felicitous and careful choice of 
words, the highest dignity and delicacy of expression. 
Study earnestly to j)resent thyself approved unto 

I. Think not that strength lies in the big round word, 

Or that the brief and plain must needs be weak, 
To whom can this be true who once has heard 

The crj for help, the tongue that all men speak, 
When want or woe or fear is in the throat. 

So that each word gasped out is like a shriek 
Pressed from the sore heart, or a strange wild note 

Sung by some faj or fiend. There is a strength 
Which dies if stretched too far or spun too fine, 

•Which has more height than breadth, more depth than 
length. 
Let but this force of thought and speech be mine. 

And he that will may take the sleek, fat phrase. 
Which glows and burns not, though it gleam and shine — 

Light, but no heat — a flash, but not a blaze ! 
Nor is it mere strength that the short word boasts ; 

It serves of more than fight or storm to tell. 
The roar of waves that clash on rock-bound coasts. 

The crash of tall trees when the wild winds swell, 
The roar of guns, the groans of men that die 

On blood-stained fields. It has a voice as well 
For them that far off on their sick-beds lie ; 

For them that weep, for them that mourn the dead ; 
For them that laugh, and dance, and clap the hand ; 

To joy's quick step, as well as grief's slow tread, 
The sweet, plain words we learnt at first keep time, 

And, though the theme be sad, or gay, or grand, 
With each, with all, these may be made to chime, 

In thought, or speech, or song, in prose or rhyme. 

— Attributed to Prof, Addison Alexander^ 



286 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

God, a workman that needetli not to be ashamed, 
rightly dividing the word of the Truth — II Tim. it: 15 
— ^was the grand ideal Paul set before Timothy. His 
apologetic disclaimer, after the severity of his just re- 
buke, which, it is presumed, has never seemed to any 
other but to himself to require an apology, is a choice 
illustration of his delicacy, his self-mastery, his royal 
magnanimity: — I wist not, brethren, that he was the 
High Priest; for it is written, thou- shalt not speak 
evil of a ruler of thy people. Acts xxiii: 5. 

Sometimes the Apostles were commissioned to hurl 
anathemas against transgressors. Few, if any, mod- 
ern teachers are thus authoritatively invested.' Surely, 
the truth must be spoken in love, if with severity, as 
it was by the Great Teacher. Jesus knew the hearts 
of men, ever comprehended motives. Fallible men 
cannot. There was a seriousness that bespoke the 
necessity of the utterance. No ill-intent inspired or 
was wrought in any discourse from Him. It was 
with tenderness, as well as with severity, for severity 
in good beings is perfectly consistent with tenderness. 
Serpents! Brood of Vipers! how can ye escape the 
condemnation of the Gehenna! Mattli, xxiii: 33. 
There was deliberate utterance. There was sorrow of 
heart for the necessity that forced such a terrible de- 

I A minister must be careful to know that what he says is au- 
thorized by the word of God, and not cloak personal malice under 
the garb of reproving with authority of God. — Dr. Skinner. 

The Prince de Vendome excused himself to Louis XIV for not 
attending church : — " Sire, I cannot go to hear a man who says 
whatever he pleases, and to whom no one has the privilege of re- 
plying." — Vinefs Homiletics. 



TRUTH SPOKEN IN LOVE, IF WITH SEVERITY. 287 

nunciation. "If any man love not the Lord Jesus 
Christ, let him be anathema maranatha." With what 
solemnity and tenderness it must have been uttered 
by the Apostle, who warned men day and night with 
tears. ^ For many walk, of whom I told you often, and 

I. A tone would do more than all syntax to give the meaning 
of some doctrine. The spoken word is life ; the written word is 
statuary. — Ecce Deus. 

Many a bold, reckless man of the world could nave said what 
Luther said ; " If there were as many devils at Worms as there are 
tiles on the roofs of the houses, I would go." None but a Chris- 
tian could have uttered the words of Paul. — Dr. Nott. 

I am not at all eloquent, unless they call him eloquent who can 
speak nothing but the truth. — Socrates in Plato. — Apology. 

Eloquence, in its highest forms and effects, is a joint product of 
two factors: of an eloquent speaker and an eloquent hearer. 
Burning words presuppose some fuel in the souls to whom they 
are addressed. — Shedd's Homiletics, 

Theodore Parker, after hearing the late Samuel J. May, said: 
" God made that voice on purpose to pronounce the Beatitudes." 

Sudden bursts, which seemed the effect of inspiration ; short sen- 
tences, which came like lightning, dazzling, burning, striking 
down everything before them ; sentences which, spoken at critical 
periods, decided the fate of great questions ; sentences which ev- 
erybody still knows by heart — in these, chiefly, lay the power of 
these extraordinary men. — Said of two great orators. — Rioted by 
Prof. Shepard in Bib. Sac, July., i8yo. 

Dr. Channing had a voice of the most marvelous sweetness that 
was ever heard. To hear him read a hymn and touch the sum- 
mits of his sermon was a perfect wonder. — Robert Colly er. 

Channing's was an insignificant figure, short and slender, about 
ICO pounds of flesh during the last years of his life being the gar- 
ment and instrument of this mighty soul. In the desk, however, 
he was of commanding hight. Where was the hiding place of 
that marvelous voice .^ One of the three most eloquent, says Em- 
erson, that he ever heard. He spoke with an habitual rising in- 
flection rather than cadence, which seemed to raise every listener 



288 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

now tell you weeping, that they are the enemies of 
the Cross of Christ. PhilL Hi: 18, Ye stiff-necked 
and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always re- 
sist the Holy Spirit — was spoken by him whose face 
was like that of an angel on the occasion, and who, 
ere he expired, kneeled down and cried out with a 
lond voice: Lord! lay not this sin to their charge. 
Ads vii: 51-60, 

Some, pandering to special classes in churches and 
congregations, and fearful of giving offense in the de- 
liverance of the Gospel message, have shunned to 
declare the entire counsel of God; kept back part of 
the Truth; refrained from the proclamation of it with 
the plainness, boldness, fidelity required from the 
messenger of God; been dainty in expression; have 
minced language. The Truth, if it has been uttered 
at all, has been shorn of its majesty — been diluted or 

to the skies ; soft, yet audible, and melting yet resonant, clear 
when it whispered, and clarion when it rang. He told me that, 
with speaking for many years, new tones had been developed in 
his voice. One day at his home an unbeliever complained of 
Christ's denunciation of the Pharisees as too severe. Channing 
got the book, turned to the passage, and read the " Wo upon wo. " 
in his way, so solemn, gracious and calm. " Oh," said the infidel, 
before the recitation stopped, " if he spoke in that tone, my objec- 
tion is withdrawn." Henry Clay's voice was called a band of 
music, Webster's was a trumpet, Channing's a harp. — C A. 
Bartol. 

Men cannot print tones, glances, sighs or tears. The heart al- 
ways suffers by being translated into speech. Readers bring their 
own method of reading ; and often the book, which is essentially 
musical, is dishonored by a vitiated articulation. — Ecce Deus. 

It Avas not so much what you said, as your manner of speaking 
it. — Note of a Stranger to McCheyne, 



FIDELITY IN SPEECH. 289 

emasculated, and the so-called Christian instruction 
fell effectless on the minds and consciences of judg- 
ment-bound hearers, — 

Like snow-flakes on a river, 

A moment white — then gone forever,^ 

instead as iron hail to batter down the infidelity of 
the human heart, and to penetrate the triple-plated 
conscience. Woe unto those who thus emasculate 
the Truth, who sheathe its keen edge in floss of 
words. " He that hath my Word, let him speak It 
faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat, saith the 
Lord." ' 

1. Like snow-flakes in the river, 

A moment white, then melts forever. 

— Burns. 

2. The minister here (Boston), on entering the pulpit, too often 
feels that he is to be judged, rather than to judge ; that instead of 
meeting sinful men, who are to be warned or saved, he is to meet 
critics to be propitiated or disarmed. . . . Formerly Felix 
trembled before Paul ; now the successor of Paul more frequently 
trembles. — Dr. Clianning. 

Great sermons, ninety-nine times in a hundred, are nuisances. 
They are like steeples without any bells in them ; things stuck up 
high in the air, serving for ornament, attracting observation, but 
sheltering nobody, warming nobody, helping nobody. — H. W. 
Beedier. 

A great many preachers die of style ; that is, of trying to soar , 
when, if they would only consent to go about as their ideas do, 
they might succeed and live. — Dr. BusJmell. 

He considered the sermon, in our day, as the highest possible 
mode of expression, combining oration, poetry and prophecy in 
one. — Life of Dr. Channing 

Having rung the great bell of the universe, the sermon to follow 
must be extraordinary. — John Foster. 

When I sit down to compose a sermon, I ask three questions: 

U 



290 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

He who undertakes to speak to men in the name of 
God, assuming commission thereto, must not soil the 
message in the delivery. The pulpit is no place for 
a demagogue, a mountebank, a trifler, a maligner, or 
a boor. 

Though it is not possible for the disciple to speak 
as did his Master, it is his privilege to approach Him 
in this perfection. And what a model in speech was 

I. What do my people know about this subject? 2. What do I 
know about it which my people do not know? 3. How can I 
make my people know what I know, and they do not? 

The close of a sermon should be like the approach of a ship to 
the wharf, 'with all sails standing. 

" You do not repeat enough," was the answer of an eminent at- 
torney who had been asked by a clergyman why the pulpit was 
so ineffective. '*I could never gain a verdict from a jury, unless 
I repeated my thoughts oftener than you repeated yours."' When 
Dr. Chalmers was interrogated with regard to the secret of his rhe- 
torical success, his reply was : " Repetition, Repetition, Repeti- 
tion." — Park'^s Memoir of Emmons. 

Study each of your congregation. Some preachers take a mark 
as big as a cloud, and as hard to hit. Preaching is picking out 
men. It is dead aiming right between their eyes, and if you don't 
hit, blame nobody but yourself. 

A true preacher looks at a man as Hobbs looked at a lock, who 
always asked himself: ^'How can I pick it?" — H. W. Beeclier. 

The effect of sermons, and, indeed, of all public speaking, de- 
pends often upon very little things. — Earnest Ministry. 

When Theodore L. Cuyler asked Dr. Skinner, in the presence 
of a company, who was the greatest preacher he had ever heard, 
the response was quick as thought: "Lyman Beecher on the 
Government of God was the most tremendous discourse I ever 
listened to." It was at the end of that sermon that Lyman Beecher 
was heard to answer, in response to an inquiry made as he de- 
scended the pulpit, as to how long it took him to prepare that ser- 
mon : "About forty years, sir." 



THE GREAT TEACHER THE MODEL. 291 

He! His entrance upon discourse was artless, un- 
studied, commonly springing from the occasion, local- 
ity and environment. What mellifluence was there 
in the Beatitudes! What skill in the marshaling o£ 
Truth, in the exposure of sophistry — the trenchant 
thrust, the quick retort, the resistless logic, as, for in- 
stance, in His replication to the sinister interroga- 
tions and responses of the Jews, as to His divinity. 
His relations to the Roman government, the extension 
of the conjugal relations in the Resurrection, or the 
Life beyond! What could be more fearful and vivid 
than the glimpse of the World of Woe disclosed 
through the Parable of the rich man and Lazarus! 
What positive revelation of the unmitigated suffering 
of a lost soul, and of its eternity of duration! What 
a wail and monition out of Gehenna and from a lost 
one, to all living! What power His quiet rejoinders 
had — the argumentum ad hominem, the silence, in 
which there was more potency than speech! Consider 
His disposal of the sinister ones who brought to Him 
the adulteress. Never was an Epic compressed in 
such brief limits as that of the Prodigal Son. What rev- 
elation in it of the Divine tenderness. Divine patience, 
Divine forbearance. Divine love, borne on to the epic 
conclusion through the grand undercurrent of the 
Heavenly purpose! What lucid statement, explicated 
and unfolded through such befitting analogies in na- 
ture, in the Parable of the Sower! Men will never 
tire in their study and admiration. For compression 
in deliverance, the substance of what had been ex- 
pressed or intimated before — that which was shrined 
in Sacred Song, embalmed in hallowed memories, and 



292 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

what, previously, had been lavishly strown by Jesus 
Himself on the wayside of His journey, from day to 
day — precious revelations, gems of thought, balmy 
consolations, heavenly aroma, respecting the blessed- 
ness, the duties and destiny of believers, that which 
would suffice for them if all other divine sayings were 
lost — all that was necessary to be comprised in the 
last Testament of such a Being to His loved ones, 
then, and in all succeeding ages to the last Trump; 
where does one turn but to those priceless 13th, 14th, 
15th and 16th of John? For the fragrances and the 
plenitude of Love in the dying hour, earnestness of 
supplication, triumphant assurance that the blessings 
plead for would certainly descend, where would one 
look but to that Memorial prayer? 

The substance of Esthetics in Speech could not, as 
is conceived, be more comprehensively and symmet- 
rically stated than it has been by him who appre- 
hended so fully the affluence, majesty and eternal 
sweep of His Master's teachings: — 

Whatever things are true, 

Whatever things are honest, 

Whatever things are just, 

Whatever things are pure, 

Whatever things are lovely, 

Whatever things are of good report; 

If there be any virtue, any praise, 

Consider these things. — PliiL iv: 8 

But the Great Teacher, iii His discourse, did not 
restrict Himself to bare, unadorned statement of 
Truth. He embellished and enforced it with all the 
elegancies, the graces of language; all the felicities 
of speech; by illustrations — lenses of thought As 
inspired ones before Him, all master speakers in the 



ILLUSTRATIONS BY THE GREAT TEACHER. 293 

long line of Hej3rew history, He summoned to use 
the imagination, "the dramatic element found in every 
man." "Without a Parable spake He not unto them." 
"He spoke many things to them in Parables." That 
which was actual or possible in nature, or real in his- 
tory, He seized upon to illustrate and enforce His 
truth. Never were His illustrations far-fetched. 
They sprang to His bidding as He passed along in 
the journey of His discourse, by the wayside, in the 
field, on the mountain, or in the valley. Consider the 
lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neith- 
er do they spin. And yet I say unto you, that even 
Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of 
these. If, therefore, God doth so clothe the grass of 
the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into 
the oven, shall He not much more clothe you, O ye 
of little faith? Maith. vi: 28-80. Standing by the 
well of Samaria, He said to the woman: Whosoever 
drinketh of the water that I shall give him, shall 
never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall 
be in him a well of water springing up into everlast- 
ing life. John iv : 14-15. Seeing Simon, and Andrew 
his brother, about to cast their nets into the sea, for 
they were fishers, He said unto them: Follow Me, and 
I will make you Fishers of Men. Matth iv: 19. In 
the vicinity, probably, of the sepulchres about Jeru- 
salem, when tried with the perversity of the Pharisaic 
and Sadducean dignitaries. He exclaimed: Woe unto 
you Scribes, Pharisees, - Hypocrites ! for ye are like 
unto whited sepulchres, which outwardly appear 
beautiful, but inwardly are full of dead men's bones 
and of all corruption. Even so ye also outwardly 



294 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

appear righteous unto men, but inwardly ye are full 
of li3rpocrisy and iniquity. MattL xxiii: 27, By the 
sea-side of Gennessaret, seeing the sower scattering 
the seed on the sloping hills inclosing it, or in the 
adjacent yalleys, or the reapers gathering the harvest 
therefrom. He declared unto them those matchless il- 
lustrations of the spiritual work. He that soweth the 
good seed is the Son of Man. The Field is the 
"World. The good seed are the sons of the kingdom, 
but the tares are the sons of the Wicked One. The 
enemy that sowed them is the Devil. The harvest is 
the end of the world, and the reapers are the angels. 
As, therefore, the tares are gathered and burned in 
the fire, so shall it be in the end of the world. MaWi. 
xiii: 37-40. A doer of His Word is like a house 
founded on a rock. Tempests break upon it, but it 
falls not. The mere hearer, like that abode built 
upon the sand. It falls, and great is the fall of it. 
The remorse of the lost is an unquenchable Fire and 
an undying Worm. 

Thus followed His Apostles: — Truth was a Girdle; 
Righteousness, a Breast-Plate; the Defences of the 
Gospel, Sandals; Faith, a Shield; Salvation, a Helmet; 
the Word of God, the Sword of the Spirit. To the 
Hebrew prophets before Him, that same Truth, in its 
various manifestations, became Goads, Nails, Fire, 
and, in its effects on the human heart, like a Hammer 
on a Flinty Rock. It was likewise a Rock, the Sun, 
the Tree of Life, the Great Deep, Honey and the 
Honey-Comb, Apples of Gold in Pictures of Silver. 
The Messiah was to grow up as a Tender Plant, and 
as a Root out of Dry Ground. He would be like a 



THE GATES AJAR ! 295 

Refiner's Fire, and like Fullers' Soap — the Shadow 
of a great Eock, a Covert from the wind and tempest, 
the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the 
world. 

The Heaven of the Apocalypse is the New Jerusa- 
lem descending with Glory from God — as a Bride 
adorned for Her Husband! The Wall, four-square, 
was of Jasper clear as Crystal. The Foundations 
were of all manner of Precious Stones! Each of the 
twelve Gates was a Pearl! The City itself, with its 
Minarets, Towers, Steeples, Domes, and the Streets 
thereof, were of Blazing Gold! The Lord God Al- 
mighty and The Lamb are the Illuminated Temple of 
it! The Voices out of the Innumerable that throng 
it, as the Voice of many Waters, and as the Voice of 
a great Thunder, resting not day nor night, saying, 
Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, Which was, 
and is, and is to come! The New Song of the myriads 
of the Harpers, harping with their Harps: — Worthy 
is the Lamb that hath been slain to receive the Power, 
and Eiches, and Wisdom, and Strength, and Honor, 
and Glory, and Blessing! And the grand acclaim of 
the chorus: — The Blessing, and the Honor, and the 
Glory, and the Dominion be unto Him who sitteth 
upon the Throne, and unto the Lamb, Forever and 
Ever! 

That preaching has always been the most effective 
which came the nearest to the Great Teacher's mat- 
ter and manner/ 

I. When I was in my first parish, I used to have a class of 
young people whom I questioned about my sermons. Thus I 
learned what parts were best remembered ; and I found that they 



296 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

True, "there are diversities of gifts" in the min- 
istry. With one is "the word of wisdom," given 
through the Spirit; with another, "the word of knowl- 
edge" — the Xoyo^ 6ocpia%^ and the X6yo^ xvoDdsGi)<; — 
the gift of persuasion, and of instruction; wisdom and 
knowledge; preaching and teaching; homily and exe- 
gesis; rhetoric and logic; speaking and writing^ — to 
every man his ot\ti, his individual, his peculiar gift. 
Neglect not that gift that is in thee, man of God; stir 
it up; covet earnestly the best gifts; educe and wield 
that, found in large or small measure in the mental 
constitution of every one — perhaps latent, undevel- 
oped in thee, the gift of comparison. I Tim. iv: 12-16. 

always remembered best the parts that had illustrations. So I re- 
solved never to shoot off an arrow without winging it. — Dr. 
Guthrie to Newman Hall. — Independent. 

In periods of intellectual acquiescence, it is found that the re- 
ligious world is settled fimly upon theological dogma ; but, in per- 
iods of great intellectual agitation in scientific and philosophical 
inquiry, the religious idea passes into what may be called the par- 
abolic phrase. 

Christ proceeds upon the principle, that the world must be edu- 
cated by enigmas, pictures, and problems ; and He has commis- 
sioned His church to educate it on that basis. 

He turned nature into a great book of illustration ; he showed 
that every bush was a flame with consuming fire, and vocal with 
the utterances of God. — Ecce Deus. 

The Imagination is that power of the mind by which it con- 
ceives of invisible things, and is able to present them as though 
they were visible to others. 

Imagination, Emotion, Enthusiasm and Conviction are the four 
foundation stones of an effective and successful ministry. — H. 
W. Beecher, 

I. o Xoyo^ 6 yeypafifxivoi — Johnxv:2j. 



LOVE THE GREAT PERSUADER. 297 

But, it must be added, in the language of the Apostle, 
there is a more excellent way. Love is the great per- 
suader. A heart warm with love to the Lord Jesus 
Christ — " a passion for souls " — will overcome imped- 
iments of speech, poverty of intellect, illiteracy; will 
move, convince, when elocution, abstract and illus- 
trated Truth, and logic, will fail. Though one speak 
with the tongues of men, and of angels, and have not 
Love, he will be like sounding brass or a clanging 
cymbal. I Cor. xiii: 1, And the Spirit alone is the 
Quickener. 



ILLUSTRATIVE AND SUGGESTIVE. 



The special ingredients of eloquence are: — clear perceptions; 
memory ; power of statement ; logic ; imagination, or the skill to 
clothe your thought in natural images; passion, which is the heat; 
and then a grand will, which, when legitimate and abiding, we 
call character, the height of manhood. 

The voice, indeed, is a delicate index of the state of mind. I 
have heard an eminent preacher say, that he learns from the first 
tones of his voice on a Sunday morning whether he is to have a 
successful day. A singer cares little for the words of the song; 
he will make any words glorious. . . . Plutarch, in his enu- 
meration of the ten Greek orators, is careful to mention their ex- 
cellent voices, and the pains bestowed by some of them in training 
these. What character, what infinite variety, belong to the voice! 
sometimes it is a flute, sometimes a trip-hammer ; what range of 
force! In moments of clearer thought or deeper sympathy, the 
voice will attain a music and penetration which surprises the 
speaker as luuch as the auditor. 

The orator is thereby an orator, that he keeps his feet ever on a 
fact. Thus only is he invincible. No gifts, no graces, no power 
of wit or learning or illustration, w^ill inake any amends for want 
of all this. . . . "What is he driving at.?" and if this man 
does not stand for anything, he will be deserted. 

It is only to these single strokes that the highest power belongs 
— when a weak human hand touches, point by point, the eternal 
beams and rafters on which the whole structure of nature and so- 
ciety is laid. — Emerson. 

It requires a clear sight, and, still more, a high spirit, to deal 
with falsehood in the decisive way. I have known several honest 
persons who valued truth as much as Peter and John, but, when 
they tried to speak it, they grew red and black in the face, instead 
Ananias^ until, after a few attempts, they decided that aggressive 



THE ESTHETICS OF SPEECH. 299 

truth was not their vocation, and confined themselves thencefor- 
ward to silent honesty, except on rare occasions, when either an 
extreme outrage, or a happier inspiration, loosened their tongues. 
But a soul is now and then incarnated whom indulgent nature has 
not afflicted with any cramp or frost, but who can speak the right 
word at the right moment^ qualify the selfish and hypocritical act 
with its real name, and, without any loss of serenity, hold up the 
offence to the purest daylight. Such a truth-speaker is worth 
more than the best police. . . . Like moths about a lamp, her 
victims voluntarily came to judgment; conscious persons, encum- 
bered with egotism ; vain persons bent on concealing some vice ; 
arrogant reformers, with some halting of their own ; the compro- 
misers who wished to reconcile right and wrong. — Emerson 07i 
Margaret Fuller, 

The style which has great power is often the result of great la- 
bor. . . . Demosthenes greatly elaborated his style. He not 
only labored to attain power in composition, he also expended a 
vast amount of strength and solicitude upon the several pieces he 
produced. He had his favorite passages, which he wrought to the 
very highest possible finish, and introduced into different orations. 
And it is curious to see the delicate changes which he introduced 
on the repetition of a favorite passage — how careful as to the col- 
location of a word, or the position of a particle ; and yet, these are 
the passages of the greatest effectiveness, those on which he par- 
ticularly relied. 

. . . All the best writers that have lived, and whose writings 
have lived, have been hard elaborators. The men who stir us by 
things put down a century ago, put down those things with a 
great deal of pains-taking. . . . Every cogent quality of style 
may be gained by rightly working on it. A person may work his 
style into the utmost closeness and condensation, by habitually 
working out from it all the inept and useless words, and getting 
and keeping in only the precise and significant. He can work off 
roughnesses, when a smooth surface would be the most effective, 
and put on a polish that shall flash and attract. He can take the 
wind out of the too swollen and bombastic, and bring it down to a 
decent and comely simplicity. The rigid and hard-moving joints 
he can change to an easy and quick flexibility. His bluntest and 



300 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

squares! sentences he can forge to a point they should have, as in- 
fallibly as the blacksmith can hammer his iron to that form. . . 
While he continues thus to elaborate, he will be advancing in the 
power to bring out every effective attribute of style. . . . He 
must know how to elaborate ; must do it heartily, with resolute 
vigor, and with the eye upon the right things. Some of the most 
stirring paragraphs that ever went from human lips into the hu- 
man ear and heart were written to the turning of every tittle. . . 

Great power in oratory has been, for the most part, the result of 
the extremest labor and pains-taking — not to make the discourse 
dense and deep with thought, but to crowd it full of that indefin- 
able, but electric thing called eloquence. 

. . . Let any other man who has marked faults of manner, 
meet them as the Grecian did, and with a like indomitable pur- 
pose, decree their correction and the bringing in of the correspond- 
ing excellencies, and he will, in a measure, succeed. Let him put 
his finger resolvedly upon the specific defects, and say : " If my 
voice is harsh, I will try to make it smooth ; if it is feeble, I will 
try to give it strength ; if it is slender and squeaking, I will labor 
for volume and manliness ; if the emission is mostly nasal, I will 
practice till I can drive it out at the mouth, where it ought to go ; 
if I can make but one inflection, I will work till I can make two; 
if I can make none, I will labor till I can make the whole, just 
when and where and how I please. The wretched, lullaby, sing- 
song monotony which makes me perform the office of an opiate 
upon my auditors, I will somehow break up ; and in the process of 
breaking it up, I will leave no resort untried. — Prof, Geo. Shepard 
in Bib. Sac.^ July-, i8jo. 

A young clergyman made bold to ask Webster whether the 
Hayne speech was really, as had been asserted, extemporaneous. 

*' Oh, no," replied Mr. Webster ; " the materials of that speech 
had been lying in my mind for eighteen months, though I had 
never committed my thoughts to paper, or arranged them in my 
memory." 

He was then asked about other speeches of his which were said 
to have been delivered on the spur of the moment, or at brief 
notice. 



THE ESTHETICS OF SPEECH. 301 

Mr. Webster opened his large eyes, with apparent surprise, and 
exclaimed : 

" Young man, there is no such thing as extemporaneous ac- 
quisition. ' 

He also declared, that the celebrated illustration of the material 
power of England, supposed to have been the creation of the mo- 
ment, had been composed, and rewritten with many interlinea- 
tions and erasures, some time before, on one of his vacation visits 
to Quebec, and reserved for a future occasion. 

" If I have any skill as a speaker," said Wendell Phillips, " I owe 
it to the fact, first, that I had an intense conviction of the truth of 
my opinions, and then, when I rose to speak, that I forgot every- 
thing but an intense desire to make the audience think as I did." 

On a blank leaf of Dr. Griffin's manuscripts, it appeared that 
his discourse had been preached ninety times. 

Massillon sometimes rewrote a single sermon fifteen or even 
twenty times. 

An American divine spent a fortnight on a single paragraph of 
one sermon, and three months on another. 

Michael Angelo spent twenty months in painting the ceiling of 
the Sistine Chapel. 

Leonardo da Vinci spent four years in painting his Mona Lisa, 
and was then disappointed with it. 

Ghiberti spent forty years on the two gates of the Baptistery at 
Florence — the same which Michael Angelo said were worthy to 
be the gates of Paradise. — Park. — Bib. Sac, July, i8yi. 

His voice, his looks, his gestures, and his whole deportment 
should be wholly governed by his ultimate end, which is to pene- 
trate and impress the minds of his hearers. This is an infal- 
lible guide. ... While he means to be natural, he ivill be 
natural. While he means to be significant, he will be significant. 
While he meayis to impress, he will impress. While he aims at the 
understanding, he will fe^ietrate the understanding. While he 
aims at the conscience, he will penetrate the conscience. While 
he aims at the heart, he will penetrate the heart. The preacher 
always discovers his ultimate aim to every discerning hearer. His 
tone, his air, his attitude is always correspondent to the impression 
which he means to make. If he means to attract the eyes of the 



302 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

congregation, his deportment will proclaim it. If he means to 
please the imagination, and gain the esteem and applause of his 
hearers, his voice, his countenance, his language, and all his atti- 
tudes will discover it. Or, if he means to promote the instruction, 
conviction and edification of his people, he will ^practically tell them 
so by the manner, as well as the matter, of his preaching. 

. . . Some men preach their subject, and some themselves. 
Some have the rare faculty of hiding themselves behind their sub- 
jects. You think nothing of the man, but only of the subject 
about which he speaks. Others are directly the opposite of this. 
They preach themselves, and not their subject. You think little 
of the subject, but only of the man. The preacher employs his 
subject only as a means of displaying himself to better advan- 
tage. . . . 

Be sure not to imitate such preachers, unless you wish to make 
yourself the scorn and the pity of all good men. 

The wise preacher will choose the best words and place them in 
the best order, to enlighten the mind and affect the heart. 

I never thought of my style. I wrote as I thought. 

The thing, the thing — that is what I am after. 

The mind makes the orator. 

I have often spent a whole day in selecting the right phrases for 
a good thought. — Dr. Emmons, — Parke's Memoir. 

It is asserted that, although Mr. Dickens read nearly five hun- 
dred times, he never attempted a new part in public, until he had 
spent at least two months over it, in study as faithful and search- 
ing as Rachel or Cushman would give a new character. This 
study extended not merely to the analysis of the text, to the dis- 
crimination of character, to the minutest points of elocution ; but 
to the facial expression, the tone of the voice, the gesture, the atti- 
tude, and even the material surroundings of the actor, for acting it 
is., not readings in the ordinary sense at all. 

My genius is decaying. . . . My statue of Christ is the first 
of all my works that has satisfied me. Hitherto my idea has al- 
ways outrun my execution. But if now I ain satisfied, I know I 
shall never have a great idea again. — Thorwaldsen. — ^notedby 
John Weiss. ^^Am. Religion^ 

A preacher may be a born preacher, and have a possession of all 



THE ESTHETICS OF SPEECH. 303 

the faculties necessary for his work, and he still will need the care, 
the knowledge, the study, and the reverence of the artist to give 
to him the human vehicle through which he may speak. — Lamps ^ 
Pitchers and Trumpets. 

Dr. Bellamy was once solicited by his congregation to furnish a 
copy of the sermon he preached during a thunder-storm, for pub- 
lication. He consented, provided the thunder and lightning 
could be published with it. 

The sermon which he preaches in an hour may be the result of 
months and years of meditation. The truth which he utters in a 
sentence may have cost him long, laborious, exhaustive research. 
— Dr, Channing, 

Nettleton's personal attention to the critical state of individuals 
in the progress of a revival was wonderful. This is a field in 
which the greatness of his vigilance, and wisdom, and promptness, 
and efficacy lay, the wonders of which, though much may be told, 
can never be recorded. . . . The power of his preaching in- 
cluded many things. It was highly intellectual, as opposed to 
declamation, or oratorical, pathetic appeals to imagination or the 
emotions. It was discriminatingly doctrinal, giving a clear and 
strong exhibition of doctrines denominated Calvinistic, explained, 
defined, proved, and applied, and objections stated and answered. 
It was deeply experimental in the graphic development of the ex- 
perience of saint and sinner. It was powerful beyond measure in 
stating and demolishing objections, and at times terrible and over- 
whelming in close, pungent, and direct application to the particu- 
lar circumstances of sinners. . . . There was in some of his 
sermons unsurpassed power of description, which made the subject 
a matter of present reality. Such was his sermon on the Deluge. 
. . . The house was filled with consternation, as if they heard 
the falling of the rain, the roaring of the waves, the cries of the 
drowning, the bellowing of cattle, and neighing of horses, amid 
the darkness and desolation. The emotion rose to such a pitch 
that the floor seemed to tremble under the tones of his deep voice. 
. . On the whole, taken together, it was one great movement 
upon the intellect, conscience, and heart, guarding against ob- 
structions, and augmented in power by continuity of attention, 
and impressions, and all sorts of co-operating auxiliary influences, 



304 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

with less of defect and more of moral power than I have ever 
known, or ever expect to see again. 

Nettleton was old and broken, Finney young and robust. The 
one was reverential, timid, sensitive ; the other bold, striking, de- 
monstrative. The style of the one was subdued, that of the other 
full of eclat. The atmosphere most congenial to Nettleton was 
one of hushed, mysterious stillness. " I love to talk to you," he 
would say. "Go away as still as possible." Finney is described 
by an admirer as " frank, open, giving his opinion without solici- 
tation, in a strong style, somewhat dictatorial. He keeps nothing 
to himself. In this respect he is perfectly at antipodes with Net- 
tleton. ... If we might presume to illustrate the difference 
of the two men in their style of labor by a comparison, we should 
say, that the latter set snares for sinners, the former rode them 
down in a cavalry charge. The one, being crafty, took them with 
guile ; the other, being violent, took them by force. — Autobiog, of 
Beecher. 

Nettleton's chief oratorical effects were gained by occasionally 
uttering some such thrilling word as "lost," ^'-lost^'' "lost!" in 
loudj ringing tones during his sermon. — T. L, Cuyler, 

I have in mind ... a certain preacher, who was conspic- 
uous only because he was effective, and was effective only be- 
cause of the wonderfully distributive power of his address, not 
because of any remarkable merit in the style, or thought, or sub- 
stance of his sermon. That keen, gray, individualizing eye — it 
was shooting everywhere, into everybody. Not five minutes 
passed before every person in the assembly began to feel that the 
preacher's two six-shooters were leveled directly at him. Gener- 
alities were soon gone by, and the dealing had become a very per- 
sonal matter. — Dr. Bushnell. 

Mr. Finney, who was a born reasoner, and was not a man of 
very much emotion except moral emotion, used to conduct revivals 
very much as a fleet of war vessels would take a fort, swinging 
round and round and round, as Dupont did at the South, letting 
off broadside after broadside ; and after he had preached about fif- 
teen or twenty sermons, the people were in malleable condition, 
so that he could mold them as he wished. — H, W. Beecher. 

♦*The wages of sin is death." "Wages, wages^ wages," he 



THE ESTHETICS OF SPEECH. 305 

cried; ''you'll be ;paid; you'll get your due; you'll receive what 
you've earned; you'll get your 'wagesP — Finney. 

A lav^yer in Auburn, N. Y., meeting Mr. Finney on the street, 
w^as so much frightened at the eagle-gaze of Mr. F.'s eye, that, as 
soon as he passed him, he started on the run dow^n the street, never 
stopping until his shame led him to turn and see Mr. Finney 
calmly watching his flight. 

Mr F. was illustrating that scene in which Solomon showed his 
wisdom by calling for a sword and ordering some one to slay a 
little babe that was claimed by two mothers. His uplifted hand 
was about to strike the blow, when a mother in the audience 
clasped her child to her bosom in terror of its life. On another 
occasion, Mr. Finney hurled an imaginary arrow at his congrega- 
tion, and simultaneously a woman's shriek sounded clear and shrill 
through the great church. 

"How is it that I hear this of thee? Give an account of thy 
stewardship ; for thou mayest be no longer steward." In his 
words: "Joseph, I lashed them with a whip of scorpions," the ap- 
lication was so intense and effective that a rich man of the church 
jumped up in the audience and cried : " Don't say any more, Mr. 
Finney ; don't say any more ; I'll pay every bit of it. 

In marvelous dramatic power he was at least the peer of 
Whitefield. 

Finney was a very striking figure in the pulpit. — About six feet 
in height, erect and long-armed, with a lofty forehead and a large 
gray eye, whose gaze seemed now to sweep over a whole audience 
and then to pierce into the secret soul of some individual before 
him ; his voice, not deep, but so clear that it reached into every 
corner of those large audience-rooms, and at times pitched in aw- 
ful solemnity ; his manner entirely his own and utterly unaffected, 
but such as arrested and compelled attention — all these external 
qualities combined to make him a man of peculiar power in the 
pulpit. Then his imagination, always at work and sometimes as 
lurid as Dante's; his power of Saxon language; his absolute con- 
tempt of all mere elegancies of speech ; his lucid and relentless 
logic ; and a certain dauntless disregard for all human opinion, or, 
more correctly speaking, an ever-pervasive feeling that he was not 

V 



306 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

accountable to man for what he said — these also combined to 
make him the preacher that he was. — Rev. Robt. Aihnan. 

Geo. Beaumont says his voice was full, round, clear, but sound, 
without crack or flaw. It had not only volume, but compass, va- 
riety ; it was rich and sweet, as well as sonorous. Its modulations 
were musical. Gifted with the highest powers of pathos his ten- 
der, soft, persuasive tones were melodious in the extreme, and 
great gushes of feeling poured forth in his voice. Even in single 
words this power appeared. Garrick said he would give a hun- 
dred guineas to say '■^Ohr^ as Whitefield did, and tells us that he 
could make an audience weep or tremble by merely varying his 
pronunciation of '•'■Mesopotamia.'''' . . . 

He did not trust, however, to natural gifts. His culture of ora- 
tory was assiduous. If nature made his voice powerful, practice 
made it omnipotent, and his master elocution was not an endow- 
ment, but only an acquirement. . . . According to Garrick, 
each repetition of a discourse, even to th.Q fortieth^ showed constant 
improvement, both in tones and action. 

Franklin describes his voice as loud and clear, with perfect ar- 
ticulation ; and, on the basis of experiment, calculated that it would 
reach thirty thousand people, grouped in a semi-circular area. It 
was often heard a mile off; and, as fi-om Society Hill in Philadel- 
phia, he read the words: " And He opened His mouth and taught 
them, saying," it was said that the sentence was distinctly audible 
at Gloucester-point, two miles off. 

• » . As he represented the waves dashing over the disman- 
tled and sinking ship and asked, "What next!" seamen rose and 
shouted, '-^ Take to the long boatf'' Lord Chesterfield was so en- 
chanted by his description of a blind beggar, stumbling over the 
edge of a precipice, that he shouted, "Good God! he is gone! " and 
jumped to his feet as if to save him. . . , 

Hume said he would go twenty miles to hear him, and declared 
that when, on one occasion, he entreated Gabriel to " stop, that he 
might yet bear to heaven the news of one sinner reclaimed to 
God," the apostrophe surpassed, in animated yet natural action, 
anything he ever saw or heard. 

Betterton, the actor, said that the dullness and coldness that 
empties the meeting-house would empty the play-house if the 



THE ESTHETICS OF SPEECH. 307 

players spake like the preachers ; and told the Lord Bishop of 
London that the reason why the clergy, speaking of things real, 
affect the people so little, while the players, speaking of things un- 
real, affect them so much, is because ^^the actors speak of things 
imaginary as though they tvere real; the preachers^ too qften^ speak 
of things real as though they were imaginary.^'' — A, T, Pierson^ in 
Advance, 

A striking feature in Whitefield's preaching was his singular 
power of description. The Arabians have a proverb which says, 
" He is the best orator who can turn man's ears into eyes." White- 
field seems to have had a peculiar faculty of doing this. He used 
to draw such vivid pictures of the things he was handling that his 
hearers could believe they actually saw and heard them. "On one 
occasion," says one of his biographers, " Lord Chesterfield was 
among his hearers. The great preacher, in describing the miser- 
able condition of an unconverted sinner, illustrated the subject by 
describing a blind beggar. The night was dark and the road dan- 
gerous. The poor mendicant was deserted by his dog near the 
edge of a precipice, and had nothing to aid him in groping his 
way but his staff. Whitefield so warmed with his subject, and en- 
forced it with such graphic power, that the whole auditory was 
kept in breathless silence, as if it saw the movements of the poor 
old man ; and at length, when the beggar was about to take the 
fatal step which would have hurled him down the precipice to cer- 
tain destruction, Lord Chesterfield actually made a rush forward 
to save him, exclaiming aloud, " He is gone ! he is gone ! " — Inde- 
pendent, 

Much of the wondrous power of Whitefield lay in his voice and 
action. . . . With an eye melting into tears, a voice tremulous 
with emotion ; shrill, yet full, now swelling into thunder, and then 
dying again into soft whispers ; one moment, apostrophizing to 
God, and the next, piercing the sinner's conscience with an appeal 
that was as sharp arrows of the Almighty, . . . his very hands 
all the while, and his every gesture, seeming to help his laboring 
soul and his matchless elocution. — Earnest Ministry. — Jajnes. 

He had a voice such as I never heard before or since, . . . 
and he had the grace of an actor. His voice and manner helped 



308 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

him more than his sermons. — John Adams, tvhen go years old. — 
Atlantic Monthly, 1862. 

The pulpit was to him the grandest position on earth, and he 
entered it with a most exalting, yet disinterested sense of its dig- 
nified and solemn trusts. . • Preaching was the great action 
of his life. . . . The preparation for it was a work of conse- 
crated genius ; it was as if every week he had made a poem or an 
oration . — Dr, Channing. — Me^noirs. 

He did not j^reach in the ordinary sense of the word , . . . 
in the pulpit he lived the things he saw and heard. The greatness 
of human nature shone in his beautiful brow, sculptured with 
thought, and lighted from within ; his eye, so full and blue, was 
lustrous with a vision of God, and seemed almost an open door 
into the shining presence. His voice, sweet, round, unrestrained, 
full, though low, lingered as if with awed delay upon the words 
that articulated his dearest thoughts, and trembled with an ever- 
restrained but most contagious emotion. . . . There was no 
muscular strain or contortion in his limbs or face or voice ; no ex- 
citement of a fleshly origin ; no false fervor or false emphasis ; no 
loss of perfect dignity and self-possession. And there was little 
in the -words themselves to fix attention, except their purity and 
grace. It was the subject that came forward and remained in the 
memory . He left you not thinking of him, or his rhetoric. He 
had no startling figures, no brilliant fancies or sharp points ; little 
for admiration or praise ; everything for reflection, for inspiration, 
and for illumination. 

His presence was more awful, simple and gentle as he was, than 
that of any human being I ever saw. It forbade familiarity, 
silenced garrulity, checked ease, and had something of the effect 
of a supernatural visitor; awing levity, and making ^ven common 
speech, or speech at all, difficult. — Bellows on Channing, — Cen- 
tennial. 

That wonderful voice ! Wonderful not for the music of its 
tones, but for its extraordinary power of expression. Whether 
from the delicacy of the vocal organ, or from bodily weakness, I 
do not know ; it was flexible to tremulousness. When he began 
to discourse, it ran up and down, even in the articulation of a 
single polysyllabic word, in so strange a fashion that they who 



THE ESTHETICS OF SPEECH. 309 

heard him for the first time could not anticipate its effect — how, 
before it ceased, that voice would thrill them to the utmost. 

It was the pure personal conviction from which he spoke, that 
inspired his voice and took sole charge of it to its faintest modula- 
tions. When he read familiar hjmns and passages of Scripture, 
one felt as if he had never heard them before. The effect of his 
reading was, at times, something more than a pin-drop silence ; 
his hearers were awe-struck. I recall single words which, as he 
uttered them, seemed big with meaning that, to write them, so 
that they might be as large to the eye as they were to the ear, a 
whole side wall of the church would hardly have afforded space 
enough. While he spake as he was moved, and because he thus 
spoke, his speech exemplified the finest principles of elocution. — 
TV, H. Furness on Channing. 

Alleine's addresses all breathed a winning tenderness, and all 
revealed an amazing power of rapid, homely, sheltering appeal. 
The thoughts were all impetuous with a rush of fresh and glowing 
life; and though there was the prophet's rough mantle, there was 
also his chariot of fire. Every meaning was clear, every stroke 
told, every gesture seemed to speak, vividus vultus^ vividi oculi^ 
vividce manus^ denique omnia vivida, 

. There was piercing directness ; the shafts of living 
Scripture flew straight to their intended mark, and each swift sen- 
tence had an aim clear as had the arrow found on the ancient 
battle-field, bearing the motto, " For Philip's eye." — Ad Clerum, — 
Parker 

Be sure, also, if the author is worth anything, that you will not 
get at his meaning all at once ; — nay, that at his whole meaning 
you will not for a long time arrive in any wise. Not that he does 
not say what he means, and in strong words, too ; but he cannot 
say it all ; and what is more strange, will not, but in a hidden way 
and in parables, in order that he may be sure you want it. I can- 
not quite see the reason of this, nor analyze that cruel reticence in 
the breasts of wise men that makes them always hide their deeper 
thought. They do not give it you by way of help, but of reward, 
and will make themselves sure that you deserve it before they 
allow you to reach it. But it is the same with the physical type 
of wisdom, gold. . . . Nature puts it in little fissures in the 



310 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

earth, nobody knows where ; you may dig long and find none ; 
you must dig painfully to find any. — Ruskin. 

I warn you against the wickedness of taking any studied ges- 
tures into the pulpit. I denounce this as iniquity in the sight of 
God, as the consummation of heartlessness, as a hypocrisy as 
transparent as it is audacious. Abandon all selfish notions of pop- 
ularity when you stand before men as the messenger of God ; and 
that you may be enabled to do this, watch and pray, and fast, if 
need be, and God will accept your sacrifice ; look upon all self- 
consciousness in your ministry as a temptation of the Devil, and 
cry mightily to God, that He may break the damning snare; for 
what have you to do with your personality, and with human opin- 
ions about your appearance and styles, when your Lord is waiting 
to speak His living word through your lips? Know you not that 
you preach in God's hearing as well as man's .^ Will you cheat 
your hearers with an attitude, when you should give them a gos- 
pel .'' Will you perplex them with a riddle, when you should call 
them to salvation? Will you attract their eyes by a grimace, when 
you should fix their vision upon the uplifted Savior? May God 
in His mercy strike us dumb, rather than allow us to preach our- 
selves. — Ad Clerum, — Parker. 

The ground is full of sympathy ; the flowers have been printed 
with teaching. The trees, that only seem to shake their leaves in 
sport, are framing divine sentences; the birds tell of Heaven with 
their love warblings in the green twilight; the sparrow is a preach- 
er of truth ; the hen clucks and broods her children, unconscious 
that to the end of the world she is part and parcel of a revelation 
of God to man. The sheep that bleat from the pastures, the hun- 
gry wolves that blink in the forest, the serpent that glides noise- 
lessly in the grass, the raven that flies heavily across the field, the 
lily over which his shadow passes, the plough, the sickle, the wain, 
the horse, the flail, the threshing floor; all of them are conse- 
crated priests, unrobed teachers, revelators that see no vision them- 
selves, but that bring to us thoughts of truth, contentment, hope, 
and love — all the ministers of God. — H. W. Beecher. 

No man ever becomes a really great preacher who has not the 
talent of a right and genuinely Christian atmosphere. — Dr. 
BushnelL 



Jesus owed these numerous conquests to the infinite charm of 
His person and His speech. A penetrating remark, a look falling 
upon a simple conscience, which needed onlj to be awakened, 
made for Him an ardent disciple. . . . He would aver that 
He knew something intimately concerning him whom He wished 
to win, or He would recall to him some circumstance dear to his 
heart. It is thus that He touched Nathaniel, Peter, and the Sa- 
maritan woman. — Life of Jesus. — Renan. 

Follow the Savior in these things. Endeavor, as far as possible, 
to become affectionately acquainted with every individual to 
whom you are called to minister. Enter into their circumstances, 
rejoice in their joys, and sympathise with them in their sorrows. 
Become acquainted with all their wants, especially those of a spir- 
itual nature, which it is your province to endeavor to relieve. And 
not only know your people, but endeavor to let them know you. 
Let them become affectionately acquainted with you. . . . 
Live without a disguise, as the Savior lived, and your people will 
love you. They will give you their whole hearts. — Judson at Or- 
dination of Osgood, 

The first thing, therefore, that a bishop has to do is, at least, to 
put himself in a position in which, at any moment, he can obtain 
the history from childhood of every living soul in his diocese, and 
of its present state. . . . If he cannot, he is no bishop, though 
he had a mitre as high as Salisbury steeple ; — he has sought to be 
at the helm, instead of the masthead ; he has no sight of things. — 
Ruskin. 



CHAPTER X. 



FISHERS OF MEN. 

A friend of publicans and sinners. — Luke vii: 34. 

Even as I please all men in all things, not seeking mine own 
profit, but the profit of the many, that they may be saved. — 
1 Cor. x:sS' 

Follow^ Me, and I will make you Fishers of Men. — Matth. iv: ig. 

Jesus was the most genial of friends and com- 
panions. What charming tableaus does the artless 
record of His journeyings, discoursings with His se- 
lect and elect, present! The aspirations of great 
souls, before Him, were realized in such companion- 
ship. As in all other aspects of His humanity, Jesus 
was exemplar in this. Though He moved all classes 
with the majesty of the manifested God, to all who 
were susceptible to the lovable. He was attractive as 
woman. He was a gentle-man — 

The first true gentleman that ever breathed.^ 

The mightiest were inspired with awe, and the hum- 
blest were drawn to Him with resistless attraction. 
He sought those who needed Him most — for the poor, 
the friendless and the afflicted, that He might lift 
them up heavenward to His divine level. The intel- 
lectually strong, or the powerful in position, do not 

I. Thomas Dekker, 17th century. 



DISCIPLES AS CHILDREN. 313 

invite, but repel familiarity from inferiors; on no con- 
ditions tolerate it from the degraded and outcast. 
Jesus, on the contrary, sought association with all 
those who needed, much more those who felt the need 
of His divine fellowship and sympathy. The sides 
of His nature were as manifold as the diversity of the 
persons He encountered — their moods, and the differ- 
ent stages of their spiritual development. He was 
the myriad-minded One. "All men went after Him — 
the multitudes after the multitudinous Man. . . . 
People that were rejected on every side, became His 
servants and brethren and friends. . . . He built 
a kingdom out of the refuse of society. . . • 
Christ never shut Himself from the wicked, and yet 
never seemed to be so far from them as when in their 
very midst. ^ 

As might be expected of such an One, He took the 
deepest interest in little children. "Suffer them," 
said He, "to come unto Me, and forbid them not; for 
of such is the kingdom of God." When there was 
strife among the disciples, who should be the greatest 
in that kingdom, He called a little child and set him 
in their midst, and said: "Yerily, I say unto you, ex- 
cept ye be converted and become as little children, ye 
^hall not enter into the kingdom of Heaven." When, 
once in the Chicago Opera House, thousands of such 
were disclosed by the rising of the curtain, ranged 
tier upon tier — retreating to the ceiling, white-robed 
and waving their tiny handkerchiefs in universal flut- 
ter, as they rose to sing in combined chorus the mel- 
odies of Heaven, the vividest idea of the celestial 
I. Ecce Deus. 



314 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

glory, beauty and purity of that kingdom was re- 
ceived. Men, in the regeneration, will have all the 
characteristics of childhood — its simplicity, transpar- 
ency, guilelessness, trustfulness, love, without its per- 
versity; otherwise, they have reason to fear they have 
not experienced this palingenesia at all. 

He went not only into the Great Temple and syna- 
gogues, but into private habitations and on to thor- 
oughfares, wherever men were found. He moved 
them not only by His formal and incidental discourses, 
but by His holy life. He graced with His presence 
the marriage festival at Cana; was studious to be at 
the bedside of the fever-tossed and suffering; and 
wept with the forlorn sisters at the sepulchre of their 
brother. Many a pleasant, cheering word did He ut- 
ter to the poor, the friendless, the sick and the sor- 
rowful, as He journeyed day by day. He dined with 
Publicans as with Pharisees. He frequented the 
abodes of obscurity and poverty, as well as the man- 
sions of the rich and celebrious. Children loved to 
ascend into His arms and be blessed. It is some- 
times said of one, he is made to be loved. Those 
thus endowed, or thus sanctified, are indeed blessed, 
if they are lovers of Jesus, for great will be their in- 
fluence. The believer should strive to be like His 
Master in these characteristics. He should bear 
against any natural or acquired asceticism; study to 
be gentle, genial, courteous to all men. 

One who had a lofty conception of the ministry and 
its work — subsequently rising to eminence; who spoke 
in the pulpit with compression and power, and appar- 
ently with gracious unction; who seemed to be rapt 



WISE AS TO GOOD, HARMLESS AS TO EVIL. 315 

when in prayer — in the exercise, very near to the 
Mercy Seat; — was, in his personal intercourse, habit- 
ually acrid and censorious; did not appreciate the ex- 
cellencies of his brethren, clerical or laical; rather 
pounced, at their mention, with ferocity upon their de- 
fects, seemingly ravenous for the prey; was haughty in 
his carriage, manifesting none of the meekness and 
gentleness of his Master. His influence over many, who 
were disposed to love him for the gifts and culture he 
indeed possessed, was neutralized or lost thereby. 
They were compelled to turn away from his ministra- 
tions with pain of heart. He has been mellowed, it is 
believed, by his riper service since, if not by the min- 
istry of chastening. What are all gifts ? what is all 
knowledge? if they are not sanctified and impelled 
by Love? "Sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal." 
They "profit nothing." 

Let not, then, Fisher of Men, thy "good be evil- 
spoken of." "I would have you," said the Apostle, 
"wise unto that which is good, and harmless concerning 
evil." " Study to show thyself approved unto God, a 
workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly di- 
viding the word of the truth." The Christian ought to 
be the highest style of a man, specially in the pulpit. 

"Follow Me," said He, "and I will make you 
Fishers of Men^ Patiently, vigilantly, flexibly, per- 
sistently, should those professedly called to this voca- 
tion angle for souls; seek to enclose them in the Gos- 
pel meshes, that they may be landed on the shores of 
eternal life. Sought must they be, where they can be 
found, not only in the house of God, but in the fam- 
ily, on the streets, in their places of business, wher- 



316 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

ever their haunts may be. Temperaments must be 
noted; all possible knowledge of previous history and 
personal experience be acquired; for, without it, no 
man or woman can be thoroughly understood. There 
is a key to the confidence of every one. It is the 
business of the Fisher of Men to find it. Anomalies 
in conduct can be comprehended and reconciled, only 
when true history is known. The history, experience 
of an individual cannot be unimportant to him who 
would seek to be an instrument in its salvation. With 
what art, patience, perseverance, persistence, men 
angle for each other in business ! What pains do they 
take to acquire previous knowledge of character, 
habits, peculiarities, before personal contact and deal- 
ing! Is one an impulsive, nervous, irritable person? 
Time is bided, opportunity is sought when the genial 
mood is upon him, and he can be safely and success- 
fully approached. Some are not difficult to be met, but 
difficult to be moved; others are brusque, and desire to 
have the object sought in interview brought quickly to 
them for consideration. Perhaps they may be best 
sought in the same way. Others approach, and are 
to be approached circuitously — some on their weak, 
others on their well-fortified side. This is often hon- 
estly, honorably and holily done. Men are compelled 
to study approaches for the achievement of good or 
bad purposes. The Devil understands this business 
to perfection. To preserve equanimity,- and to main- 
tain circumspection; to be patient under repulse and 
rebuff for the sake of a holy end, is a great attain- 
ment. He that hath such self-mastery, such flexibility 
in intercourse, "is mightier than he that taketh a city." 



WISE TO WIN SOULS. 317 

Now, the angler for souls who would win them must 
be wise in the effort. The Apostle strove to please 
all, in all things, that he might save some. He made 
himself flexible in approach and contact. But let 
none vainly suppose, that the slightest tortuosity or 
insincerity in conduct will win. The Jesuits have 
been ever shipwrecked in their mission, on the reefs 
of this offense. To adopt the lines which Geo. Eliot 
so often puts into the mouth of Adam Bede — 

Let all thy converse be sincere, 

Thy conscience as the noonday clear ; 

For God's all-seeing eye surveys 

Thy secret thoughts, thy words and ways. 

To supplement and re-enforce with the injunction of 
George Herbert — 

Next to Sincerity^ remember still, 

Thou must resolve upon Integrity. 

God will have all thou hast ; thy mind, thy will. 

Thy thoughts, thy words, thy works. 

The first requisite for success is a clean heart, a 
holy motive, and a consistent life. The second, skill 
in detecting, at a glance, an individual's peculiarities, 
mental and emotional, and his mood. The third, tact 
in approach. The fourth, patience to the last — ^pa- 
tience in persistence, in returning again and again, 
until the desired and holy end is attained; patience 
under rude treatment; patience under repulse; pa- 
tience to the last. Patience is born of Love. It 
"suffereth long and is kind," "and is not easily pro- 
voked." "Beareth all things, endureth all things." 
Ceaseless, exhaustless, untiring, it finally triumphs. 

Watch, then, Fisher of Men, for souls. If you are 
a man of God indeed, and your life is in unison with 



318 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

your profession, you will be privileged to approach 
nearer many hearts than any ordinary friend. Pa- 
tiently, persistently bide your time; then enter in 
and take possession in the name of your Master. 

The confidence of the pure, the loving, the true, the 
Christ-like, will always be secured for you in advance. 
The young, the trustful, will love you, measurably at 
first, for your position alone, independent of any at- 
tractiveness in your personal or Christian character, 
or clerical services, for you professedly represent 
Jesus, the "One altogether lovely, and the chief 
among ten thousand." That is enough for them.^ If, 
in addition to the possession of a brilliant, cultivated 
mind, you are a thorough, symmetrical Christian, no 
limit can be placed to the influence you may have 
over multitudes of hearts. The love of some for you 
will be passing that of woman, for the gracious, com- 
forting influence of your prayers, and your pulpit 
ministrations. Fail not to lay your hands upon such 
jewels, and place them to be resplendent in the dia- 
dem of the Christ on High. The Baptist, looking 
upon the Divine One as He walked, said to two of his 

I. Upon the resignation of a pastor in Chicago, it was officially 
and in print, with amplification, declared : 

" His whole 4ife before us has been so beautiful, he has been so 
unselfish, so earnest, and untiring in his w^ork, so lovely in his 
character, so sympathetic and tender, and yet so manly and noble, 
that he has become to each one of us more than a pastor; he is 
our dearly loved brother and personal friend. He has shed beams 
of light along the pathway of the old, and been an inspiring ex- 
ample to the young," etc. 

Blessed is the church that can, in truthfulness and sincerity, 
thus perfume the ministry of a pastor, and blessed is that pastor 
who is worthy to receive such a precious anointing. 



FISHERS OF MEN IN PARTNERSHIP. 319 

disciples: "Behold the Lamb of God." One of them 
— Andrew — first finds his own brother; Phillip finds 
Nathaniel; and both bring them to their Master. 
The world knows the result. The fruitage is in 
Heaven. Jesus, above them all, with divine, beauti- 
ful discernment, called to Him the fishermen of Gal- 
ilee; Matthew, from the Custom House; Zaccheus, 
from his Eevenue-Farming; Mcodemus, from the San- 
hedrim; and Paul, from the feet of Gamaliel. He 
that is wise to win souls, will not fail to discern any 
select ones in his congregation — to lay his hands upon 
them that they may become "fellow-helpers," "true 
yoke-fellows," right arms of strength with him in his 
spiritual work. Thus all successful pastors have done. 
He that winneth souls is wise. Gentleness, tact in 
personal intercourse, are the highest wisdom. Thou 
workest for men through the Christ. Yoke others 
with thee in the divine co-partnership. 



ILLUSTRATIVE AND SUGGESTIVE. 



From the very first of his ministry, he never preached without 
his eye on his audience. He noticed every change of countenance, 
every indication of awakened interest. And then he immediately 
followed up by seeking private conversation. His ardor in this 
pursuit was singular and almost indescribable. He used to liken 
it to the ardor of the chase. The same impetuosity that made 
him, when a boy, spring into the water after the first fish that 
dropped trom his hook, characterized all his attempts as a fisher of 
men. . . . Many souls now in Heaven must remember that, 
in the beginning of their religious course, he sought them, fol- 
lowed them, and would not let them go. At the same time, no 
sportsman ever watched a sky -bird with more skilful, wary eye 
than he watched, not to disgust, or overburden, or displease the 
soul that he was seeking to save. His eye, his voice, his whole 
manner, were modulated with the utmost tact and solicitude. He 
could tone himself down to the most shy, timid and fastidious. . . 

When he saw that one was moved, he followed him. " A — B — 
has seemed to feel a good deal," he would say, "these several Sun- 
days. I must go after him. Something seems to block his 
wheels." Often he used to say to me, speaking of one and another 
with whom he had been talking: "I've been feeling round to find 
vjJiere the block is. I put my finger on this and that, and it don't 
move ; but sometimes the Lord helps me, and I touch the right 
thing, and all goes right. — Aiitobiography of Lyman Beecher, 

There ought to be for man nothing more manly than to attack 
men ; to put his eye on them, and studj^ them, as a merchant does 
his customer, to see how much he can make out of him. . . . 
As a Christian fishei*man . . . you put your ej'e on a man, 
and study him, and try one thing and miss him ; you studj- him 
again, and try another thing and miss him again ; you pray over 



FISHERS OF MEN. 321 

him, and carry him home with you, and live and sleep with him 
constantly in your mind ; you watch your game ; and at length 
you begin to make an impression upon him. And then you ex- 
perience an ecstacy, a joy that is unutterable. You concentrate 
other influences upon him — fail with some, and succeed with 
others ; at last you land him, and the thrill of triumph is more 
glorious than that experienced by a buffalo-hunter, a lion-killer or 
a fisherman ! To land a man, and land him, not on the shores of 
streams that will run out, but on the shores of streams where there 
shall be no more lapse and flow, is glorious indeed. 

Every fish has its fly ; but even the right fly is not enough ; you 
must place it nicely, at the right spot. 

As to managing men : I never see a man unless I think, Now 
how could I manage this man ? I am like an engineer that can 
never pass a fort without thinking, How could I take that fort.^* 

When a young minister finds a man whom he does not know 
how to approach, he must find out how. Go around about him 
and take his measure. Study him. Examine him on all sides as 
an engineer does a fort, and then bombard him. Say, " By the 
grace of God, I'll have you. I'll have you^ — H. W. Beecher. 

There was, no doubt, an adaptation, a fitness in the occupation 
of these men to develop just those attributes of character most 
needed in the apostolic office. There are various modes of fishing, 
and each calculated to cultivate and strengthen some particular 
moral quality of great importance in their mission. 

. . . Every kind of fishing is uncertain. A dozen times the 
angler jerks out a naked hook ; the hand-net closes down on noth- 
ing ; the drag-net brings in only weeds ; the bag comes up empty. 
And then, again, every throw is successful — every net is full ; and 
frequently without any other apparent reason than that of throw- 
ing it on the right side of the ship instead of the left, as it hap- 
pened to the disciples here at Tiberias. 

. . . No one occupation of humble life, not even that of the 
shepherd, calls into exercise and develops so many of the elements 
necessary for the ofl[ice of a religious teacher, as this of fishing. — 
The Land and The Book. — Tho7npso7i. 

A young minister who had made himself conspicuous for a se- 

W 



322 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

vere and denunciatory style of preaching, came to Dr. Bellamy 
one day to inquire why he did not have more success. " Why, 
man," said the Doctor, " can't you take a lesson of the fisherman ? 
How do you go to work, if you want to catch a trout .^ You get a 
little hook and a fine line ; you bait it carefully, and throw it in 
gently as possible, and then you sit and wait and humor your 
fish till you can get him ashore. Now you get a great cod-hook 
and rope-line, and thrash it into the water, and bawl out : ' Bite 
or !'" 

His knowledge of men was also due to his sensitive sympathy. 
He seem to feel by it, as if by a sixth sense, the character of those 
with whom he came into contact. It was not through knowledge 
of the world, nor through reasoning on the actions of men, that 
he recognized what they were, He felt them. Hence he had a 
very strange and great power. He almost always felt, in the 
presence of others, not his own feelings, but theirs. He identified 
himself with them for a time. He was thus enabled to reveal 
men to themselves, to tell them what their life meant, and how to 
idealize it and to ennoble it ; to draw out in them what was best 
and highest; and all this with a gracious tact, due also to his sen- 
sitiveness, which seldom did too little and never went too far. 

He left no means untried by which to win sinful men and 
women to the love of Christ. He sought them in their homes, in 
their haunts of vice, suffering no pain nor trouble of his own to 
hinder him, deterred by no fear of misconception, never losing 
sight of them, pleading with them with the irresistible force of an 
ardent nature sanctified and intensified hy the Holy Spirit. 

He found among his congregation soine whose mental and spir- 
itual diflSculties were similar to those which had been his own, and 
to whom he could give the sympathy and help which are born of 
a suffering which has passed into victory. ... In proportion 
as his friendship was deep, was his imagination penetrative into 
the characters of his friends, and that to such a degree, that 
he took their lives into his own. And for all in whom he became 
interested, he was untiring in effort. He invented new plans for 
their lives, new interests, new pursuits. He sought ceaselessly for 
remedies for their trials, and means of escape from their perplexi- 



FISHEBS OF MEN. 323 

ties. There never lived a truer friend. — Memoirs of F. W, 
Robertson. 

In the public ministry of a church, week by w^eek, a congrega- 
tion listens to one man's teaching; year by year, a solemn connec- 
tion is thus formed ; for so, thoughts are infused, perforce ab- 
sorbed. They grow in silence, vegetate, and bear fruit in the life 
and practice of the congregation ; and a minister may even trace 
his modes of thinking in his people's conversation — not as mere 
phrases learnt by rote, but as living seed which has germinated in 
them. A very solemn thing! for what is so solemn as to have 
that part of a man which is his most real self — his thoughts and 
faith — gro\/ into others, and become part of their being! 

An act of charity will teach us more of the love of God than a 
thousand sermons ; one act of unselfishness, of real self-denial, the 
putting forth of one loving feeling to the outcast and " those who 
are out of the way," will tell us more of the meaning of the 
Epiphany than whole volumes of the wisest writers in theology. 

Love a man, that is the best way of understanding him. Feel 
a truth, that it is the only way of comprehending it. — 7^. W, 
Robertson, 

He had a wonderful faculty of knowing people. A person could 
not attend his church many Sabbaths and fail to make his ac- 
quaintance; he would inquire him out; find where he lived; know 
something of his history, and interest himself in him. • . . 
His perception of character was remarkable. . . . He was a 
close observer . . . He studied particular characters, that he 
might know how to approach them and gain an influence over 
them. And when a sinner once found him on his track, pursuing 
hard after him, it was vain to flee, and hard to get away from his 
grasp. . . . He cultivated this talent. . . . He watched 
for opportunities to put it to good use ; and, if they did not readily 
occur, he would go out and create them, — Life of I. S. Spencer., 
D. D., by Rev. J. M. Sher'wood. 

He took great pains to become acquainted with all his people ; 
and in the prime of his life, there were very few among them who 
were not well known to him, either in person or by their charac- 
ters. Every part of his parish, and every individual in it, with 
whom he had become acquainted, was an object of his almost 



324 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

daily consideration. He inquired into their belief and practice on 
the subject of religion, etc. He always noticed their attendance 
upon, or neglect of the means of grace. Whether they were pen- 
itent or impenitent was a question of great apparent solicitude 
with him. — Dr. Einmo^is. — Park. 

Her mood applied itself to the mood of her companion, point to 
point, in the most limber, sinuous, vital way, and drew out the 
most extraordinary narratives. 

She fell, at once, into agreeable relations with her domestics, be- 
came their confidant, teacher and . helper, studied their characters, 
consulted their convenience, warned them of their dangers or 
weaknesses, and rejoiced to gratify their worthy tastes; and, in re- 
turn, nobody could receive, from servants, more punctual or hearty 
attendance. 

" I do not regret that I have shared the labors and cares of the 
suffering million, and have acquired a feeling sense of the condi- 
tions under which the Divine has appointed the development of 
the human." 

She won the confidence and affection of those who attracted her, 
by unbounded sympathy and trust. 

I think few servants ever lived weeks with her, who were not 
dignified and lastingly benefitted by her influence and her 
counsels. 

I have known few women, and scarcely another maiden, who 
had the heart and the courage to speak with such frank compas- 
sion, in mixed circles, of the most degraded and outcast portion of 
her sex. 

She became a confidant, a counselor of the tempted and troubled. 

She probably knew the cherished secrets of more hearts than 
any one else, because she freely imparted her own. With a full 
share, both of intellectual and of family pride, she pre-eminently 
recognized and responded to the essential brotherhood of all hu- 
man kind, and needed but to know that a fellow-being required 
her counsel or assistance, to render her, not merely willing, but 
eager to impart it. Loving ease, luxury, and the world's good 
opinion, she stood ready to renounce them all, at the call of pity 
or duty. — Horace Greeley. — Memoirs of Margaret Fuller. 

Labor for the training of Christian churches. Study the state 



FISHERS OF MEN. 325 

of Christian minds. Learn the idiosyncracies of Christian expe- 
rience. Strive to enlarge the growth of Christian hearts by a wise 
culture. Feed the lambs of the fold. Make your name dear in 
Christian families. Magnify your office by vindicating, in your 
example, its permanence. Labor, by your life's work, to build up 
monuments that shall live, when you shall have entered into rest. 
Such labors shall bring your work into alliance with the costly, 
the stable, the far-reaching plans of Jehovah. Such a purpose 
spans the globe in its wise forecast. It has a prophetic eye, and 
looks into the remotest future. — Prof. Austin Phelps^ in Bib. Sac, 
July, i8s4- 

A Christian church should be so managed that it should be im- 
possible for any attendant upon its services to escape observation; 
and it should be so trained to its social duties, that every person 
who takes shelter in its sanctuary should, at least, have the oppor- 
tunity to find shelter in its homes. 

Let fathers and mothers be on the watch to speak kindly words 
to such homeless wanderers as may roam within the circle of their 
influence. 

The Prince of Evil never stands upon etiquette. He is instant 
in season and out of season ; and those who would circumvent him 
must be equally prompt and vigilant. The church should weave 
its meshes of watchful care and love and friendship so close, that 
nobody can slip through unseen. 

It is not possible to enter into relations with any human being 
without at the same time incurring responsibility concerning him. 
— The Kingdom Coming. — Gail Hamilton. 

Every man whom we meet influences us, and we him. No 
one speaks to us, or even looks at us, but there is an influence for 
good and evil exerted by his character upon ours. His character, 
or his transient mood, acts immediately upon ours. — J. F. Clarke. 



A man sent with a message to us, which it is a matter of life or 
death whether we hear or refuse; . . . set in charge over 
many spirits in danger of ruin ; . . . but thirty minutes to get 
at the separate hearts of a thousand men, to convince them all of 
their weaknesses, to shame them for all their sins, to warn them 
of all their dangers, to try by this way and that to stir the hard 
fastenings of those doors where the Master Himself has stood and 
knocked, yet none opened; . . . thirty minutes to raise the 
dead in, — Ruskin. — The Pulpit, 

For, when man comes to front the everlasting God, and look 
the splendor of His judgments in the face, personal integrity, the 
dream of spotlessness and innocence, vanish into air; your decen- 
cies, and your church-goings, and your regularities, and your at- 
tachment to a correct school and party, your Gospel formulas of 
sound doctrine — what is all that ifi front of the blaze of the wrath 
to comeP 

What is ministerial success? Crowded churches, full aisles, at- 
tentive congregations, the approval of the religious world, much 
impression produced? Elijah thought so; and when he found out 
his mistake, and discovered that the applause on Carmel had sub- 
sided into hideous stillness, his heart well-nigh broke with disap- 
pointment. Ministerial success lies in altered lives and obedient, 
humble hearts ; unseen work recognized in the judgment day. — 
F. W. Robertson, 

Fearful thought, that for forty, fifty, sixty years, a man may 
seem to be laboring for the glory of God, and the salvation of his 
brethren, and in all these years God may not find 07ie who has 
been completely and sincerely given to him. To think that^ dyiiig^ 
a 7nan may find himself rejected at the Day of Judgment^ as an ufi- 
faithful servant! — The Priest and The Huguenot, 



CHAPTEE XL 



FIDELITY IN THE PULPIT. 

See ! I have set before thee, this day, Life and Good, and Death 
and Evil. ... I call Heaven and Earth to record this day 
against you, that I have set before you Life and Death ; — Blessing 
and Cursing: therefore, choose Life, that both thou and thy seed 
may live. — Deut, xxx: 75, ig. 

But even as we have been approved by God, to be intrusted 
with the Gospel, so we speak ; not as pleasing men, but God, who 
searches our hearts. — / Thess. ii: 4, 

Wherefore, I testify unto you this day, that I am pure from the 
blood of all men ; for I shrank not from declaring unto you the 
entire counsel of God. — Acts xx : 26^ ^7. 

Preach the Word ; be instant in season, out of season ; reprove, 
rebuke, exhort, with all long suffering and teaching, — // Tim. iv: 2. 

What a moment is that, when mounting the steps of the pulpit, 
you begin to command, by your elevation, and glance, these mul- 
titudes of men, to whom you are going to speak of their God, their 
salvation, their eternal future! For an hour, I shall have them 
under my hand ; for an hour, they will be, as it were, more mine 
than God's. What an office ! But, alas, what a responsibility ! 

I know well, that God will not demand an account of the result 
of my discourse to each one of them, but that He will certainly 
one day ask, if I have done all I could ; if I have neglected noth- 
ing to banish from my discourse, my habits, my whole life, every- 
thing which would have been of a nature to dishonor or weaken 
my authority ; and whether this poor earthen vessel, from whence 
flowed the milk of the Word, was, at least, as pure as the coarse- 
ness of the clay allowed. — Bourdaloue^ in The Preacher and The 
King, 

The Power of Speech is a mighty power If the monarch be 
responsible for the use he shall make of his, the orator also has an 
account to give. The more talent and power given him for the 



328 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

bringing of souls to Christ, the more will be required of him in 
that day when they shall be judged. You can do much for their 
salvation ; but you can do more for their perdition , for, in propor- 
tion to the reluctance with which men draw near to the strait gate, 
is the eagerness with which they precipitate themselves towards 
the other, if you are so unhappy as to open it a little. — Claude^ in 
The Preacher and The King, 

It was a lovely day in September, in a beautiful 
city, nestled in a teeming valley. The bells of that 
city were tolling responsively, and with variety in 
tone, as if to complete the gamut of a wail — signify- 
ing that the hour for the funeral of a distinguished 
citizen, ex-Congressman, U. S. Senator, and Judge 
had come. A large meeting-house had been filled 
with the elite and fashion of the city to witness the 
impressive obsequies rendered to the distinguished 
dead. In came the remains, borne with slow and 
muffled tread, and succeeded by associates in civil 
life, members of the Bar,^ and other distinguished 
citizens — some of whom had not been seen in such 
house, and others had lived, seemingly unmindful, if 
not defiant of the Decalogue and the Sermon on the 
Mount. 

The deceased had been an honorable citizen accord- 
ing to the worldly standard; doubtless was a better 
man than many who professed to be better; perhaps 
had lived apart from affiliation in sacred things with 
those who served the World, the Flesh and the Devil, 
on six days, and ostensibly the Lord on the seventh ^ 

1. One of them, since, an ex-Congressman likewise, and an of- 
ficer under the U. S. Government, went a suicide into the pres- 
ence of his God. 

2. He shows the ivhites of his eyes on the Sabbath, and the 
blacks all the rest of the week. — Thoreau. 



THE TEXT AND THE MAN. 329 

— disgusted, repelled by the incongruity, and the 
inharmony, so common, so prevalent, between profes- 
sion and practice. He, however, never signified, nor 
evidenced externally that he had experienced the 
spiritual transformation, requisite for citizenship in 
the Kingdom of Heaven. John Hi: 3-8, Indeed, re- 
port was, that he had sometimes scoffed at the al- 
leged reality and the imperative necessity of such 

TtaXiryEVBdia and SUch dyaKaiyGD6i<i — Titus Hi: 5 — 

when they were pressed upon him. 

The minister took for his text: Know ye not that 
there is a prince and a great man fallen this day in 
Israel? II Sam. Hi: 38, 

After a short historical sketch, he spoke briefly on 
the public and private virtues of the deceased; that it 
might be said of him, as it had been said of another: 
We find no fault in this man! that he was honorable 
in business, kind in the family, and benevolent to 
the poor. 

The testimony was indeed comforting and assuring 
to the worth of any man. What exterior evidence 
could be more satisfactory to the value of a citizen? 
Who would be inclined to question, in such hour, 
that, notwithstanding any delinquencies — since the 
best of men are delinquent — he was accepted by God 
as a "good and faithful servant," saved at the last, as 
will be most of us, if saved at all, by Fire? Saved! 
Then there is a perdition to be saved from, or the 
lullaby and sedative — all is, and tvill be eternally 
well, is the Gospel to be proclaimed to every trem- 
bling, quaking soul. But is there nothing higher to 
be said of a man when dead, in presence of his ashes, 



330 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

and before the careless, thoughtless, reckless living? 
What about the state of one's heart towards God? 
Must not one love Him with all his being, as well as 
his neighbor as himself, that he may satisfy the di- 
vine requisition? ^ Can obedience to one be separable 
from that to the other? Is it possible? Can he do 
either without Divine Grace assisting? What if the 
claims of that Supreme had been disregarded for 
the long years, since the young soul came to their re- 
alization ; and if the desires, intents, thoughts, of 
which the Omniscient alone can take cognizance, could 
not endure that scrutiny? What about the use, to 
the best, of the five talents or the single pound — of 
material, mental, educational endowment, with which 
his Maker had intrusted him; and did that intrusted 
occupy himself diligently, earnestly, faithfully, till 
He came, by these summons, for the rendering of ac- 
count? Had he not been a sinner, a helpless sinner 
like the rest of us? What about the conditions of 
salvation— the hopes and the basis upon which a soul 
may safely, and without peril, rest in the extreme 
hour, and at the last day? Are there no positive re- 
quirements with respect to God and men, as well as 
prohibitions from wrong-doing to either? Will mere 
outward integrity alone, in merely human relations, 
save a man? Can he, with all his good works, save 
himself? and is not, what m'eritorious character they 
have, determined by the motive inducing thereto? 
And will not, after all, the spiritual state of all men, 
in its entirety. Here and Hereafter, be concluded by 

I. What does it signify, that a man gives men their due, and 
will not give God His? — Dr. BushnelL 



THE SERMON— THE DEAD AND THE LIVING. 331 

their habitual and prevailing intents?^ And with all 
his alleged integrity in earthly relations, had not this 
one, like most o£ his kind, lived a selfish, a self-seek- 
ing life? For the final estimate, will there be no scru- 
tiny of purpose as well as of execution? Is there not 
such voluntary alienation from God — gravitation 
away and downward from Him, as necessitates di- 
vine interposition from the consequent inevitable per- 
dition? Is rescue from such deplorable possible 
otherwise, and is not that — under the Gospel of Jesus 
Christ, to those acquainted with its conditions — indis- 
solubly related to, and dependent upon that Saving 
One? 

Perhaps there had been antagonies in this man's 
soul all the way through, such as warred in the soul 
of the great Apostle, so that the right, through Grace 
unrecognized, prevailed. But wast thou assured, 
didst thou have evidence at all, that such, present 
and conspicuous, had experienced that Gracious trans- 
formation? To these imperiled, might not the issue 
have been realized — It is Life or Death for me at this 
hour! Now is the acceptable and the accepted time 
for salvation! — had the probe been faithfully, pun- 
gently thrust in?^ 

1. No outward life and conduct, however just, benevolent and 
irreproachable, could prove perfect sinlessness, because goodness 
depends upon the inward motive, and the perfection of the inward 
motive is not proved by the outward act. — Mozley. 

2. I want my pastor to come to me in the spirit of the Gospel, 
saying: "You are mortal! your probation is brief; your work 
must be done speedily. You are immortal^ too. You are hasten- 
ing to the bar of God ; the Judge standeth before the door." — 
Daniel Webster, 



332 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

These are the searching, the momentous interroga- 
tions to be propounded to a soul, and for a soul to 
propound to itself, when so impressively reminded it 
must soon confront its Maker. They are to be pro- 
pounded, and it is thy special business, professed am- 
bassador of Jesus, to propound them, at the season- 
able hour and on the fit occasion. Thou must probe 
men to the quick. If thou neglectest at other times, 
thou must not at this. 

Recreant one! why didst thou not do it on this oc- 
casion? Didst thou consciously, as thou didst pro- 
fessionally, professedly, take Him with thee into that 
pulpit, and before that Presence — once the Pierced, 
now the Risen and the Glorified? Ah! He was there 
— the Uninvited. Thou shouldst have been assured 
of this. His eyes were as a flame of fire. Bev, i: 4; 
it: 18; xix:12. Dan. x:6. He was present. Wast 
thou afraid? Of whom wast thou afraid? Of such 
as would be, soon, associate clay of him before them 
and thee? Well disposed, doubtless, thou wast. Thou 
didst not desire to disturb unnecessarily, indecorously, 
as some might deem — the complacency, the placidity 
of any dignitary present by personal appliance of the 
logic of such event, and by intimations of the peril 
awaiting souls not ready for such inevitable. For 
whom didst thou appear? For thyself? Thou wast 
there to speak in the name of God to men — not merely 
to eulogise the dead, save to the extent of the right- 
eous life, and for exemplification; — ^to chant a Psalm, 
or wail a Threnody. Much less wast thou there, by 
suppression of the Truth correlate, to serve to quiet 
perturbations, which, conscience smitten by the 



CLOSE OF THE SERMON. — REFLECTIONS. 333 

Finger of God through this event, may have stirred. 
Thou wast not so faithful as the unillumined asses- 
sors of the Egyptian dead.^ Thou wast there, chiefly, 
and above all other considerations, to press upon the 
living the voice from the dead. Thy dereliction was 
not so much in what thou didst say, as in that neg- 
lect to speak that which, above all others, was impera- 
tively required to be said at that moment, and in that 
presence. Thy strong regard for thy friend, thy 
seeming unrealization of what had been his spiritual 
condition, thy indisposition to disturb, thy greater 
disinclination to prick the hearts of his worldy associ- 
ates, will not atone the loss of opportunity, nor shield 
thee from the inevitable remorse — the biting back of 
conscience, for neglect, in the retributive hour. 

The discourse closed with a choice extract from a 
production of the deceased on the burial of the dead, 
and with a couplet — to the purport, that his like 
would be rarely seen again. 

Not a word in that discourse about judgment and 
eternity! Not a word about the conditions and limi- 
tations of salvation impressively enunciated by an 

I. AH the dead must pass through the same severe ordeal be- 
fore admission to their " eternal habitation," as the priests called 
the tomb. Even the priests were not exempt from it, and royalty 
itself enjoyed no immunity. There vrere forty-two assessors, be- 
fore whom the funeral train passed. It belonged to them to pro- 
nounce judgment. Any one who chose might accuse the departed 
of any immorality, and if the accusation was proved, the train was 
not allowed to pass. The rejected dead must be either buried on 
the spot, or the cases which held their embalmed bodies must be 
taken back to the dwelling of their friends, to be there a perpetual 
spectacle of grief and shame. — God in Human Thought. — E. H. 
Gillett. 



334 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

Apostle! Acts iv: 12. Not a monitory word to that 
assembly, especially to those obdurate in it! Not an 
expostulatory, beseeching word! What lost oppor- 
tunity! "What neglected occasion! Angels and the 
Glorified, looking down — intently observant, doubtless 
wailed over it. And He, the Uninvited, at thy side, 
paled and quivered in unutterable sadness over the 
scene. Once did a lost one in Gehenna wail over the 
then apprehended peril of his five brethren left be- 
hind him, and plead, but in vain, that one whom he 
saw "afar off," at rest with Abraham, — once a sufferer 
and in want at his door on earth — ^be sent to 
warn them from coming to that place or state of 
despairfulness, of hopelessness — ah! it is declared 
of anguish, hoot at it as thou mayest, unbeliever — to 
which he had come. Must a preacher of the Gospel 
wait for a quickened realization of the spiritual peril 
of unregenerate men, till he comes to Dives in Ge- 
henna, or Lazarus in Paradise? What shall be the 
pronunciation of that Dies Irce about it? Neglect is 
crime, with God as with men. It was enough to wake 
from the dead that Apostle, who reasoned about 
righteousness, self-scrutiny, restraint, control, and of 
a judgment to come, until a royal sinner trembled. 

Sir! whoever thou art, professedly sent from God, 
this writer must deal faithfully with thee. Thou who 
speakest to others, wilt one day be required to answer 
for thyself. Hast thou declared to men — dost thou 
ever do so, when privileged, when a "woe" is on thee 
if thou dost not — "all the counsel of God?" Art thou 
"pure from the blood of all men?" Canst thou con- 
fidently summon Him and all men to testify to thy 



ART THOU PUBE FROM THE BLOOD OF ALL MEN? 335 

purity from such guilt? "Pure from the blood of all 
men!" Ah, who is able to make such an affirmation? 
Fortunate, well assured must he be who can. It will 
be a comprehensive, very serious one for a preacher 
of the Gospel to make, when he, with all other indi- 
viduals, must answer for himself. Will there not be 
such personal, individual reckoning? Will not 
such account be demanded? Is, then, the as- 
sumption of such an office a light affair? Would it 
not be better that it had not been assumed, if it has 
not been faithfully filled? One or the other. — Either 
the office with the recognized and the accepted re- 
sponsibility, with the required fidelity in its dis- 
charge, or abstinence from its attempted exercise al- 
together. Oo down, Sir, if thou art not clean, and 
canst not he triced 

I. The most immoral performance that we have lately read 
was a funeral discourse. It was a eulogy and a warning; the 
eulogy of a life that should not be imitated, and the warning from 
a death that was inevitable. The life, according to the well-mean- 
ing clergyman, was brilliant, successful, renowned; but oh! breth- 
ren, death is a very sudden mystery. In a moment, in the 
twinkling of an eye, and you are gone. So said the preacher ; but 
it seems reasonable that, if you have led a truly brilliant, and suc- 
cessful, and worthily -renowned life, dear brethren, you need not 
fear to die. If death has terrors, it is a successful life which de- 
stroys them. Therefore, good preacher, instead of pointing us to 
the death, point us, if you please, to the life, and let your lesson 
be : " My friends, this was a life to be avoided as an example ;" or, 
" Here was a man who used his talents well, Avho had love and 
honor because he deserved them, whose life was successful because 
he feared God and served his brothers. To him, therefore, death 
was as the gentle opening of a gate beyond which are light and 
music. If you would die as he died, live as he lived." — G. W, 
Curtis, 



ILLUSTRATIVE AND SUGGESTIVE. 



Men felt that John was real. Reality is the secret of success. 
Religion in Jerusalem had long been a thing of forms. Men had 
settled into a routine of externals, as if all religion centered in 
these. Decencies and proprieties formed the substance of human 
life. And he re was a man in God's world once more, who felt 
that religion is an everlasting reality. Here was a man once more 
to tell the world that life is sliding into the abyss ; that all we see 
is but a shadow ; that the invisible Life within is the only real. 
Here was a man who could feel the splendors of God shining into 
his soul in the desert, without the aid of forms. His locust food, 
his hair garment, his indifference to earthly comforts, spoke out 
once more, that one, at least, could make it a conviction to live and 
die upon, that man does not live on bread alone, but on the living 
w^ord which proceedeth out of the mouth of God. 

And this is the minisby and its work — not to drill hearts and 
minds and consciences into right forms of thought and mental 
postures, but to guide to the Living God who speaks. 

Let men see that you are real — inconsistent, it may be, sinful ; — 
O, full of sin — impetuous, hasty, perhaps stern ; — John was ! But 
compel them to feel that you are in earnest. This is the secret of 
influence. — F. W. Robertson. 

Said his chaplain to Frederick William, King of Prussia, on his 
death-bed, and in presence of the whole court: " Christ is the hope 
of our salvation, on the two conditions that we accept Him with 
the heart and follow His precepts. So long as we fail in either of 
these conditions, so long can we not enter into His rest. And if 
your majesty were to be saved by a miracle, of which, however, 
we have no reason for expectation, you would not enjoy heaven, 
in the condition of mind in which you now are. Your army, your 
treasures, your lands must remain here — no courtiers can follow 
you there, no servants on whom you can wreak your anger. In 
heaven a man must have a heavenly mind." — Dr, K. R. Hagen- 
hach . — Germ . Rationalism . 



I seek for a man who shall inspire me with such a love and re- 
spect for the Word of God, that I should be but the more disposed 
to hear it everywhere. — Fenelon. — Pulpit Eloquence. 

There are men so holy that their very character is sufficient to 
persuade. They appear, and the whole assembly which is to hear 
them is, as it were, already impressed and convinced by their 
presence. The discourse which they deliver does the rest. — La 
Brueyere^ in The Preacher and The King. 

I dropped a single grain of musk 

A moment in my room ; 
When years rolled by, the chamber still 

Retained the same perfume. 
So every deed approved by God, 

Where'er its lot be cast. 
Leaves some good influence behind, 

That shall forever last. 

He was a shepherd, and no mercenary ; 

And though he holy was and virtuous. 

He was to sinful men full piteous ; 

His words were strong, but not with anger fraught; 

A love benignant he discreetly taught. 

To draw mankind to heaven by gentleness 

And good example was his business. 

But if that any one were obstinate. 

Whether he were of high or low estate, 

Him would he sharply check with altered mien; 

A better parson there w^as nowhere seen. 

He paid no court to pomps and reverence, 

Nor spiced his conscience at his soul's expense; 

But Jesu's love, which owns no pride or pelf, 

He taught — but first he followed it himself* 

— Chaucer, 



CHAPTEE XH 



A HOLY LIFE. 



I find no fault in this man. — Luke xxiii: 4. 

Who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth. — 
/ Peter 11:22. 

Ye are witnesses, and God also, how religiously, righteously, 
and blamelessly, we conducted ourselves towards you believers. — 
/ Thess. ii: 10. 

Demetrius hath the witness of all men and of the Truth itself. — 
/// Johji xii. 

As language is the attempted interpreter or the rep- 
resentative of thought, much more is life the revela- 
tion of the man, the interpretation of the creed he in- 
teriorly cherishes. Trne, men may profess one creed 
and live another, but such profession is false; there 
is no such belief in the heai^i. The head and heart 
are not ever in accord, do not reciprocally interpret 
each other. Goodness is not the invariable conse- 
quent of orthodoxy. Some of the terrible scoui^ges 
of humanity have been clear thinkers and orthodox — 
cleai' as crystal, and as hard — according to prevailing 
standards. Some of the benefactors of the race, many 
of the best men, have been declared heterodox. As 
men live, so will theii' religious professions be tested, 
and thus will be theii' influence with keen discerners 
of character. They cannot long deceive their fellows. 
By theii^ fi^uits thej' T^ill be known. 

In the earlier ages, physical prowess, royal or sac- 



INFLUENCE AND POTENCY. 339 

erdotal position, wealth prevailed. At the present, 
genius, culture, money sway. In the future, the good 
alone will be potential. 

The earnest prayer of a righteous man availeth 
much. James v : 16, To the superficial, the more 
forward in church activities, or in external religious 
movement, seem to be more potent, and to achieve 
most for their Master and the weal of the human family. 
Were those most pre-eminent who cast in out of their 
abundance, or the poor widow, who out of her penury 
gave her two mites — "all she had," "all her living?" 
Is a daisy, or a violet, less potential than a Victoria 
Eegina, or a stalwart oak? Is a hurricane more effec- 
tive than a zephyr? an earthcj^uake than a "still, small 
voice?" Who dares say? We are not competent to 
determine, to institute standards of absolute or com- 
parative worth, or to construct "prayer gauges." We 
know but very little, if, indeed, anything decisive 
about them. But we do know, that such incidents as 
the widow's devotement of the last "handful of meal," 
and of the "little oil," to the seemingly famished 
prophet, are imperishable — having outlived all the 
pretentious deeds of the hierarchies. As to like deed 
of another, Jesus declared: Verily, I say unto you, 
wheresoever this Gospel shall be preached in the 
whole world, what this woman hath done shall be 
spoken of also, as a memorial of her. Matth. xxvi: 13, 
Such minute and apparently trivial incidents have 
proved immeasurably potent in human affairs, espe- 
cially those pressed out of the last extremities, the 
deepest necessities, the deathless love of souls. 
Blasts, rumors, have put to flight the armies of aliens, 



340 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

set to the overthrow o£ the people of the Lord, and 
legions of demons have been exorcised out of individ- 
ual souls, through faith not larger than the least of 
all seeds. 

Limitless is the influence of the good. Men have 
never been able to find fault in Jesus. He enjoined 
His disciples to be perfect, even as was His Father in 
Heaven. Perfection, then, is possible — Here or Be- 
yond. He summarily rejected profession of godli- 
ness with which interior and exterior life was not in 
harmony, as salt without savor. He instituted con- 
duct — "fruits" of life — as the test of character, and 
authorized men, rigidly and without reserve, to apply 
it in their analyses of each other. Lip service, di- 
vorced from heart service, is offensive to God, and to 
all sensitive men. Political life may be destitute of 
integrity. A Christian cannot thus be. A politician 
may be a shining light in his party, yet a profligate in 
life. A man of genius may make all sensitive, even 
phlegmatic natures weep, by his tragic delineations 
of real or idealized suffering; embody in his creations 
that which is pure and exalted; yet possess a heart, 
so far as can be discerned from outward demonstra- 
tion, insensible as adamant to human woe presented 
for his practical commiseration. Some have seemed 
to be very meek; have been canonized as saints there- 
for; but when crossed in their purposes, quickly made 
manifest their selfishness, self-seeking, subtlety and 
cunning. Some have had poetic sensibility — been 
the authors of saintly productions in Christian litera- 
ture, but evidenced no heart in intercourse. Some 
have had intellectual acumen, but no breadth or mag- 



WHO SAY, BUT DO NOT. 341 

nanimity. Some have been vociferous for freedom 
for themselves, and those afar off, but disregardful of 
the rights and interests of others about them/ Some 
as zealots before, have exiled and isolated them- 
selves in spiritual deserts; but, as Horace observed, 
crossing seas and change of skies did not change their 
nature.^ Such have been manufactures turned out 
under the manipulations of religious formalism. One 
may be impure, unlovely, and unlovable in social re- 
lations, live in defiance of the Decalogue, without the 
loss of caste in fashionable society, or of reputation 
in external intercourse with others, as a gentleman. 
It cannot, it ought not so to be, in Christian, and es- 
pecially in ministerial life. Though it has been thus 
in the past, it can be so no more. 

The prescripts of Jesus were illustrated and en- 
forced by His holy life. Creed and conduct were in 
perfect union. He not only seemed, but He was, 
what He seemed.^ There was no tortuosity. "Things," 
He "spoke." No one was able to detect the slightest 
antagonism between His profession and His practice. 

1. I should be sorry to think that there were more unscrupu- 
lous politicians in the country than some old fellow-laborers of 
mine on vigilance committees and in fugitive slave cases, in years 
gone by. '-'• He is an uncom77ton scoundrel^'''' said Theodore Parker 
to me once, of one of these gentry, ^''but he loves liberty! " — T, JV. 
Higginson, 

2. Coelum, non animum, mutant, qui trans mare currunt. 

Liber /, Epist, ii, 

3. Xi'yov6i ydpy nai ov Ttoiovdt, — Matth. xxiii: j. 

Nothing is more necessary than to seem to have religion. Ev- 
ery one sees what you seem, few perceive what you are. — 
Machiavelli, 



342 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

If there had been blemishes, the lynx-eyed Pharisee, 
who dogged, like a foot-pad. His pathway from Judea 
to Galilee, and back again from Galilee to Judea, 
would have discerned them.^ Men have a right to 
expect that the lives of His ambassadors, for the 
most part, at least, will conform to the requirements 
they demand from others in His name. In such con- 
formity, such consistency, must lie the source of any 
permanent influence which a professed Christian, es- 
pecially a minister, can hope to have. Men may be 
instructed, amused, pleased, stimulated, for the time, 
by intellectual and emotional efforts; but, unless the 
life of the cleric is univocal with his speech, they will, 
more likely, turn away with aversion from the mes- 
sages delivered, than receive them with avidity — 
much less, give them heed. 

The keener the intellect, the deeper the penetra- 
tion, the riper the experience, the quicker every 
species of clerical sham will be seen through. Noth- 
ing can be more offensive to discerning men. What 
must it be to the Omniscient and Holy? Who is suf- 
ficient for these things? Few; — not any, unless the 
fire of God's grace has previously burnt up their sin 
and their chaff. 

Believers cannot be too circumspect, even in the 
little things of their external conduct. The little 

I. As He was teaching, there were Pharisees and Doctors of the 
Law sitting by, who were come out of every town of Galilee and 
Judea and Jerusalem. — Luke v: ij. 

And they watched Him, and sent forth spies, who should 
feign themselves just men ; that they might take hold of His words. 
— Luke xpc : 20, 



CONDITIONS OF INFLUENCE. 343 

foxes in deportment spoil the vines of Christian in- 
fluence. Many large-hearted, close observers, subtle 
analyzers of character, are constitutionally so organ- 
ized, or so refined by grace or culture, that, notwith- 
standing the accepted requisition upon their Christian 
patience and charity, they will be irresistibly repelled 
by anything offensive to their tastes, judgment or 
principles; — be driven away from the circle of partic- 
ular ministerial influence by habitual or even casual 
exhibition of petty meannesses, by what is unseemly, 
in any aspect, to the sacred oflice.^ 

0, Sir! Thou wouldst have influence as a Chris- 
tian! Then be one, on six days as on the seventh, on 
the streets, in the workshop, the counting-room, the 
marts of trade, in thy home, as in the prayer circle or 
the pulpit service. Thou'lt not have it otherwise. 
Thou must be, and a thorough one, otherwise thou wilt 
not have it; for the world is keen-sighted to detect 
deficiencies and inconsistencies; and so much will be 
subtracted from it, as thou arL morally and religiously 
defective in manifestation. Thou canst not always 
screen thy interior life from exterior observation. 
The door will sometimes slip open, the mask fall, not- 
withstanding thy organic and cultivated secretiveness 

1 . If there be too great a difference between your language in 
the world, and your language in the pulpit, you will, perhaps, be 
listened to as an orator ; but as for real and salutary influence, you 
will have none. . . . Your entering the pulpit must seem 
to be a simple and natural action—the necessary consequence 
of your everyday life. 

It seems to me, that if a man is really desirous to be edified by 
the sermons of any preacher, he should avoid seeing him else- 
where than in the pulpit. — T/ie Preacher and The Kmg. 



344 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

— habituated, studied reticence and reserve; and there 
will always be some, if not many, eyes steadfast and 
fixed upon thee, ready to peer in through the door 
ajar to receive disclosures. Dost thou foolishly sup- 
pose thou canst escape observation, scrutiny?^ Thou 
must strive to be good, not for the influence good 
takes with it, for then thou canst not have it at all, 
with God or men. "Seekest thou for great things? 
Seek them not." Thou must love goodness for its 
sake. She must ever be thine Ideal-Betrothed. Be 
good, Christ-like, and the aspired-for potency will 
come with no seeking.^ 

1. Cardinal Caprara, the Pope's legate at Paris, defended himself 
from the glances of Napoleon by an immense pair of green spec- 
tacles. . . . And jet Napoleon . . was wont, when he 
found himself observed, to discharge his face of all expression. — 
Emerson. 

In our times, from the highest class of society down to the 
lowest, every one lives as under the eye of a hostile and dreaded 
censorship. — Mill on Liberty. 

2. The truest influence comes unsought. The best way of 
gaining it is to act without calculation or solicitude, according to 
our clearest convictions, and to leave our lives to speak for them- 
selves. — Dr. CJianning. 

Indirect influence is often far more successful than that which 
is direct, and for this reason : — the direct aims that we make to 
convert others may be contradicted by our lives, while the indi- 
rect influence is our very life. What we really are, somehow or 
other, will ooze out, in tone, in look, in act, and this tells upon 
those who come in daily contact with us. * The law of personal in- 
fluence is mysterious. The influence of the Son of God told on 
the one thief, not on the other ; it softened and touched the hearts 
of two of His hearers, but it only hardened others. . . . Some 
are too pure to act universally on others. If our influence has 
failed, the Redeemer's was not universal. — F. W. Robertson, 



CLERICAL SHAMS— NO LONGER ENDURED. 346 

No minister whose life wars with his profession or 
oiJfice can expect to be tolerated long, among the 
American people. Such mig]^t have been endured 
in the days of Laurence Sterne, or Dean Swift; in 
the church of England — perhaps now; but will not be 
— by this nation, or by any nation in the future. The 
official representative of Jesus is expected to be an 
example, — in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in 
faith, in purity. He must take heed unto himself and 
to his teaching. He must flee from foolish and hurt- 
ful lusts, which sink men in misery and perdition. 
He must pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, 
patience, peace, meekness. Charge is given him in 
the sight of God and Jesus Christ, that he keep the 
command spotless, irreproachable, until the epiphany 
of our Lord Jesus Christ. I Tim, vi: 9, 11, 14. 
II Tim. ii:22. 

How durst thou, Sir, attempt, professionally, to 
speak in the name and behalf of the Spotless One, 
unless He has first spoken to thee; unless thou hast 
first spoken to thyself — to he pure in life, in heart, in 
speech, conduct, motive, desire? How canst thou 
speak to spotted sinners, when thou must he conscious 
that thine oiun heart — thy interior, if not thy exterior 
life is spotted with unrepented sin? 



ILLUSTRATIVE AND SUGGESTIVE. 



What sanctity, what separation from selfish views, what entire 
dedication of his whole being to the recovery, freedom, growth, 
perfection of the immortal spirit should characterize him ! His 
whole life should be a discipline of purification from earthly influ- 
ences. He snould be a perpetual testimony of Godlike goodness 
to the world which he would raise. He should so live, that the 
Spirit may shine out through him, and quicken all around him. 
What an office — to awaken the divine in man ! — Dr. Charming, 

No one could argue with Dr. Channing, because every one was 
obliged to feel him. The subdued manner, the keen-edged, quiv- 
ering delicacy of his moral perceptions, the unqualified honesty of 
the man, sanctified by his profoundly tender, always delicate rev- 
erence toward God, made the atmosphere of the place sensational, 
and no one was permitted to choose whether he would be im- 
pressed or not. 

Enter the great assembly . . . where young Summerfield 
is giving his call and testimon}', and there is a power upon you 
which it is the highest luxury and dearest blessing of earth to feel. 
You know not where it is, but clearly it is not in the words spo- 
ken. There is something about the man which fills you with a 
sense of mystery. There is incense here, and the smell of sacri- 
fice. The man is nothing, and his atmosphere everything. It fills 
the whole concavity from the rafters downward to the floor ; nay, 
it presses the walls and issues from the doors. 

The influences we exert unconsciously will almost never disa- 
gree with our real character. They are honest influences, follow- 
ing our character, as the shadow follows the sun. And, therefore, 
we are much more certainly responsible for them, and their effects 
on the world. 

Who ever saw with the eye, for example, or heard with the ear, 



A HOLY LIFE. 347 

the exertions of that tremendous astronomic force, which every 
moment holds the compact of the physical universe together? 

The preaching of Christ is often so unfruitful, and especially in 
times of spiritual coldness, . . . because there are so many 
influences preaching against the preacher. He is one, the people 
are many; his attempt to convince and persuade is a voluntary in- 
fluenced their lives, on the other hand, and especfally the lives of 
those v^^ho profess what is better, are so many unconscious influ- 
ences, ever streaming forth upon the people, and back and forth 
between each other. He preaches the truth, and they, with one 
consent, are preaching the truth down ; and how can he prevail 
against so many, and by a kind of influence so unequal.'* 

This only we know, that the great world-forces holding sway 
and swinging above are scarcely appreciable, in comparison with 
the finer things of beauty they subordinate. We do not half as 
much respect or feel the dominated graces. 

God's highest honors never go with noise, but they wait on 
silent worth, on the consciousness of good, on secret charities, and 
ministries untainted by ambition. — Dr. BushnelL 

The power of the pulpit is a personal power. There are very 
few men who move audiences by their eloquence. They grow 
less in number as education grows more universal. This is not so 
much because there are few orators as because oratory is less po- 
tent. The more men are moved by their passions, the more they 
are swayed by passionate appeals. The more they are governed 
by judgment and conscience, the more independent they are of 
one man power, even in the pulpit. We laymen, like our minis- 
ters, better than their sermons ; the sermons because we like the 
men. It is necessary, therefore, for a minister to know his people 
— necessary for them to know him. The moral power of the man 
must be behind the sermon ; otherwise it is like a bullet without 
powder. It may be ever so well moulded, it will never strike 
home. — Laicus^ in the Christian Union. 

To preach well, it is necessary to live well. To preach like 
Christ, it is necessary to live like Christ. Christ lived the minis- 
ter. Remember that Christ your Lord and Master will keep His 
eye upon you and watch you every moment. — Dr, Eimnons. 

He manifested the exaltation of his nature by never alluding to 



348 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

his income. He never hinted that presents would be welcome to 
him. He never intimated a wish to have his salary raised. — Me- 
moirs of Dr. Emmons. — Park. 

It is the price which all, who are possessed of influence, must 
pay — that their acts must be measured, not in themselves, but ac- 
cording to their influence on others. 

That which is done remains. Through ages, through eternity, 
what you have done for God, that, and only that, you are. . . . 
Deeds never die. 

Ministerial success is not shown now by the numbers who 
listen. Not impression, but altered character marks success. — 
F. W. Robertson. 

. , . The exceeding folly, as well as conceit, of those who 
spend so much time in trying to make their influence tell, and 
whose consciences are always pricking them, unless they are do- 
ing some noisy and notorious good. Assuredly, if we would per- 
fume the world, or any part of it, we had best stick close to our 
garden and cultivate our flowers, never doubting that the winds of 
heaven will be ever at hand to waft abroad all the fragrance we 
can produce. — Hudson. — Lectures on Shakspeare. 

We go on through life, and at the last we die, exercising a great 
unconscious influence upon those around us ; an influence whose 
extent will never be known till the day when the secrets of all 
hearts shall be revealed. — Thoughts of a Country Parson. 

Character is what a man really is ; reputation is what people say 
he is. — Dr. John Campbell. — Ad. Clerum. 

Character — a reserved force which acts directly by presence, 
and without means. It is not so much by what he says, as by 
what he is. — Vinet, 

The solar system has no anxiety about its reputation, and the 
credit of truth and honesty is as safe. 

It makes a great difference in the force of any sentence to know 
who is behind it. — Emerson. 

Reputation is what men and women think of us. Character is 
what God and angels know of us. — Thomas Paine. 

On six days of the week he was invisible, and on the seventh 
he was incomprehensible. 

K florid^ metaphysical preacher. — Lamps^ Pitchers and Trumpets, 



A HOLY LIFE. 349 

Such was our friend. Formed on the good old plan — 

A true, and brave, and downright honest man ! 

He blew no trumpet in the market place, 

Nor in the church, with hjpocritic face, 

Supplied with cant the lack of Christian grace. 

Loathing pretense, he did with cheerful will 

What others talked of while their hands were still ! 

And while ^' Lord ! Lord ! " the pious tyrants cried, 

Who, in the poor, their Master crucified, 

His daily prayer, far better understood 

In acts than words, was simply doing good. 

So calm, so constant was his rectitude, 

That by his loss alone we knew his worth, 

And felt how true a man had walked with us on earth. 

— Whittien 

" How seldom, friend, a good great man inherits 
Honor and wealth, with all his worth and pains! 
It seems a story from the world of spirits. 
When any man obtains that which he merits, 

Or any merits that which he obtains." 
For shame, my friend ! — renounce this idle strain ! 
What wouldst thou have a good great man obtain ? 
Wealth, title, dignity, a golden chain. 
Or heaps of corses which his sword has slain .^ 
Goodness and greatness are not means, but ends. 
Hath he not always treasures, always friends. 
The good great man } Three treasures — love and light. 

And calin thoughts, equable as an infant's breath ; 
And three fast friends, more sure than day or night — 
Himself, his Maker, and the Angel Death. 

— iS. T. Coleridge. 
It is said of an eccentric old gentleman of New England, who 
combined farming and tract-distributing, horse-trading and exhort- 
ation, that, on one occasion, while out colporteuring, with an eye 
for a good bargain in horses at the same time, he made a trade on 
an errand of mercy, and got the worst of it. He remarked after- 
wards, rather slyly : " Now the fact is, when I am working for the 
Lord, and stop to deal in horses, I never have good luck. " The 
fact is^'' said he' " / dont want the Lord around ivhen 1 am trading 
horsesP 



Sower Divine ! 

Sow the good seed in me, 

Seed for eternity. 

'Tis a rough, barren soil, 

Yet by Thy care and toil, 

Make it a fruitful field 

An hundred-fold to yield. 
Sower Divine, 
Plough up this heart of mine ! 

Sower Divine! 

Quit not this wretched field 

Till Thou hast made it yield ; 

Sow Thou by day and night, 

In darkness and in light, 

Stay not Thy hand, but sow ; 

Then shall the harvest grow. 
Sower Divine, 
Sow deep this heart of mine ! 

Sower Divine! 

Let not this barren clay 

Lead Thee to turn away ; 

Let not this field be dry, 

Refresh it from on high. 
Sower Divine, 
Water this heart of mine! 

— Rev, Br, H, Bonar, 

Lord, what a change within us one short hour 
Spent in Thy presence will avail to make ! 
What heavy burdens from our bosoms take I 
What parched grounds refresh, as with a shower! 
We kneel, and all around us seems to lower; 
We rise, and all, the distant and the near, 
Stands forth in sunny outline, brave and clear; 
We kneel, how weak! we rise, how full of power! 
Why, therefore, should we do ourselves this wrong, 
Or others — that we are not always strong — 
That we are ever overborne with care — 
That we should ever weak or heartless be, 
Anxious or troubled — when with us is prayer. 
And joy, and strength, and courage are with Thee? 

— Dean Trench, 



CHAPTEE XIIL 



PRAYER. 



Thou! Hearer of Prayer, up to Thee shall all come. — 
Ps. Ixv: 2, 

And it shall come to pass, that before they call I will answer ; 
and while they are yet speaking, I will hear. — Isaiah Ixv: 24. 

And while I ivas sneaking and prayings and confessing my sin, 
and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication 
before the Lord my God. . . . Yea, vjhile I -was speaking in 
frayer . . . the man Gabriel touched me, etc. — Da^t. ix : 20^ 
21, Ps. xxsciv: 4^ j^ 75, 77. Acts ii: i^ 2; ix: 40; ^.'9,^0, jj/ xii:j, 
12^ ij; xvi: ^5, 26^ etc. 

Thus, therefore, do ye pray. — Matth, vi: g. 

All whatever, when praying, you ask for, believe that ye do 
receive, and they shall be yours. — Mark, xi : 24. 

And, dismissing the multitude. He went up the mountain to 
pray, by himself. Then, evening having come. He was there 
alone. — Matth. xiv: 2^. 

1 am praying for them. — John xvii: 9. 

Sanctify them in the— Thy Truth. Thy Word is Thf Truth.— 
John xvii: 77. 

Pray ever. — / Thess. v: 77. 

Miserable creatures that we are! we earn our bread in sin. Till 
we are seven years old, we do nothing but eat and drink and sleep 
and play ; from seven to twenty-one we study four hours a day, 
the rest of it we run about and amuse ourselves ; then we work 
till fifty, and then we grow again to be children. We sleep half 
our lives ; we give God a tenth of our time ; and yet we think that 
with our good works we can merit heaven. What have I been 
doing to-day .f* I have talked for two hours; I have been at meals 
three hours; I have been idle four hours! Ah, enter not into 
judgment with thy servant, O Lord! — Luther, — Quoted by Froude* 



352 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

O Thou, by whom we come to God — 

The Life, the Truth, the Way ; 
The path of prayer Thyself hast trod ; 

Lord ! teach us how to pray. 

— Montgomery. 

Prayer is aspiration, adoration and supplication — 
the hunger and thirst of the soul for God; its cry for 
help in time of need; "as pants the hart for the 
brook, so pants the soul for God;" must be the pre- 
cursor of all spiritual growth; the first and last factor 
in ministerial success; the beginning and end of all 
successful effort for the weal of men. That which 
moves God must be most potent to move men. 
Through Him alone can they be effectually moved. 
There are intuitions, beliefs inherent, dicta of reason; 
this trust is of them. 

Ministers may be comforted and sustained by the 
belief that they have been called to their work; they 
may please and move by the grace of person and ad- 
dress; by the matter and manner of their pulpit ser- 
vice; be mighty in the Scriptures; do many great 
works through faith; be genial and sympathetic, 
magnanimous, large-hearted and unselfish; bold and 
faithful in their utterances; their life may be in har- 
mony with their speech; yet, if they are not ever 
prayerful — in dependence alone on the Spirit that 
quickens; — of what avail will the consecration and use 
of all these gifts and graces be, either on the heart of 
of the wayward one, or in reflex influence on them- 
selves, for securing the blessing sought? True, God 
may use them as he does all good and evil instruments 
for His glory and the good of others, but what com- 
fort will that be to them, when they are summoned to 



DID PRAYER PREVAIL? 353 

answer for themselyes? A self-reliant, and not a 
God-depending ministry must be barren of spiritual 
results, though there may be a show otherwise. There 
is reason to fear that such is often the case. Congre- 
gations pour out of gorgeously constructed, adorned 
and furnished temples, not only pleased, but charmed. 
Did prayer prevail? As they wend their way home- 
ward, are their hearts pervaded by the Spirit's influ- 
ence — so that they will be constrained to say: "How 
dreadful was that place!" Surely God was in it! It 
was none other than the Gate of Heaven! Did the 
preacher go,^ minister and depart, as if himself, the 
matter and manner of his services, the impressive at- 
tendants and circumstances of the occasion were 
nothing, chaffy, insubstantial, if the Holy Spirit was 
not manifestly present — did not prevail? Did he go 
directly to his closet and cry out in tears, beseechings 
and intercessions: O, Lord! it is nothing, unless 
Thou dost sanctify, bless and save! No trivial busi- 
ness is it for a frail and fallible one to address others 
on the great salvation. 

Can any true ambassador of Jesus be self-reliant 
then? Woe is me! for I shall perish; because I am 

I. Before I came into the sacred desk this afternoon, I kneeled 
down and asked my Heavenly Father to bless His word to jou. 
And when I go from the sanctuary I shall kneel down once more 
to ask Him to sanctify it by His Holy Spirit. What word may I 
take to Him from you? Must I tell Him that once more His 
blessed gospel has been proclaimed only to be rejected by you, or 
may I carry to him the joyful tidings that, laying aside every ex- 
cuse, you have accepted His invitation to the marriage feast.? — 
Bev, John Hall^ D, D. — Advance, 

Y 



354 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a 
people of unclean lips; for mine eyes have seen the 
King, the Lord of Hosts. Isaiah vi: 5. Never may- 
hearers be thus addressed again. This may be to 
them the favored hour, the blessed juncture, the 
golden opportunity, and the last^ 

The Great Teacher began, conducted and concluded 
His ministrations by reference to, and dependence on 
His Father. He ever urged the necessity and efficacy 
of prayer, directing how, in what manner, and for 
what it should be presented. It was to be offered to 
the Father; in His name; with faith; through the 
Spirit; for right things; in right manner; with ear- 
nestness and importunity; in subordination to the 
Father's will. For humanity in all ages He con- 
structed a prayer — not a stereotyped form, but a flex- 
ible mode. It was "m this manner'' He persistently 
urged disciples to ask, that they might receive. He 
illustrated and enforced the duty, privilege and effi- 
cacy of prayer, as He did all other teachings, through 
the favorite parable. Devoting the day to labor, He 
seemed to divide the night with rest and prayer. It 
is recorded, on one occasion, that He spent the night 
in prayer to God. Liike vi: 12. Not content with 
this. He retired for days, to mountains, secluded val- 

I. Every time that I go into the pulpit, I cannot help asking 
myself, What will remain in a month, in a Aveek, in a few hours, 
of the discourse which is to be listened to? What, after all, am I 
going to do, I think to myself, if not to render almost all my audi- 
ence more guilty? They know all that I am going to tell them. 
They have been a thousand times reproved for the same things in 
regard to which I am now going to reprove them. — The Priest 
a?id The Huguenot. 



Paul's urgency for prayer. 355 

leys, and to wildernesses, for protracted communion 
with His Father, to gather strength for mightier spir- 
itual conflicts, and for further holocaust of love. How 
often and significant is the record! Every work He 
prefaced with recognition of His Father. As He 
journeyed, and in His discourse. His heart seemed 
ever to be lifted up. It was, "My Father," "Thy 
Father," "Your Father," "Our Father." What rap- 
ture, grandeur, unction, was there in that last Inter- 
cession! The letter seems pervaded by a divine 
aroma. There are emotions which language could 
not body. 

The Great Apostle followed the Master, with the 
deepest realization of the necessity and of the potency 
of prayer. To his brethren in Rome, he declared: 
For God is my witness, whom I serve in my spirit in 
the gospel of His Son, that ever I make mention of 
you — always in my prayers. Rom,i:9, . . . Now 
I beseech you, brethren, by our Lord Jesus Christ, 
and by the love of the Spirit, that ye agonize with me 
in your prayers to God for me. Rom, xv: SO. To the 
Ephesians: I cease not, in giving thanks for you, 
making mention of you in my prayers. . . . With 
all prayer and supplication, praying at all seasons in 
the Spirit, and for this same purpose watching in all 
persistency and supplication for all the saints. Eph, 
i: 16 J vi: 18. To the Phillippians : I thank my God 
upon all my remembrance of you — always in every 
supplication of mine for you all, making supplication 
with joy. PhilL i:S, To the Colossians: We give 
thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus 
Christ, praying always for you. Coloss. i: 3, To the 



356 THE LIGHT OF LIFE, 

Thessalonians: Night and day, praying exceedingly 
for the sight of your faces, and for the reparation of 
the deficiencies in your faith. . . . And, brethren, 
pray for us. I Thess. Hi: 9-10; v: 25. 

The logic of the analogy, inviting, stimulating, 
pressing, is, to a paternal heart, irresistible. If ye, 
then, being unholy, know how to give good gifts to 
your children, how much more shall your Heavenly 
Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him? 
Luke xii: 13. Yet still, many distrustful souls find it 
difl&cult to rest upon it, because their personal expe- 
riences have been otherwise. They rarely, if ever, 
realized responses to their petitions. Oh, yes, there 
are difficulties. Thy heart and my heart are bursting 
with them. Let us not stay to unfold them. God 
pity us in our weakness and helplessness. 

Yet, still, as ever, the philosophers, the scientists 
of the day, with the rabble after them — perhaps some 
of us — demand another test, and a repetition of hoary 
experiment. If they believe not Moses and the 
prophets; if they believe not the New Testament, if 
they are not fortified in faith by the experiences of 
the praying world since; neither would they, it is be- 
lieved, be persuaded though Elijah himself rose from 
the dead to repeat the demonstration he gave twenty- 
eight centuries since. It's the prayer of faith, born of 
conviction, pressed out of necessity — the imparted 
gift of God, that prevails. Hast thou no faith, unbe- 
liever? Expect not, then, its results. They will not 
be apparent to thee. Is it curiosity, the latter-day 
mania for the last analysis of all things temporal or 
eternal, that prompts thee to cry for another tangible, 



RESULTS FROM PRAYER. 367 

material demonstration . Will the Almighty conde- 
scend, with such wondrous displays hitherto, to give 
further exhibitions? It is not probable, though He 
may. Is it expedient? Thou canst not put Him into 
a retort. Seekest thou still, as did the Jews, a furth- 
er "sign?" He can't be found out unto perfection. 
There were speculatists, if not scientists, in Job's 
day. The tone of the interrogation indicates the 
futility and the hopelessness of their endeavor. His 
ways are not thy ways. He is past finding out. But 
His promises live and abide forever. 

It is declared, and there have been myriads who 
believed, that the earnest, sincere, lawful prayer 
"availeth much." How much, can't be told. This 
much is asserted. The sun was stayed in his circuit. 
Thou dost not believe it. The witnesses were deluded 
— an optical illusion to the rude and credulous of 
those times. There crept an error in the original 
text — one Hebrew word was mistaken for another. It 
was not correctly translated; or it was a poetic hyper- 
bole — but a symbol of a reality, perhaps. 

Well, it may have been thus. Grant that it may 
have been. The All-Potent could do it, could He 
not? He who pivoted it in space could stay it for a 
season, if He willed, could He not? Then why may 
He not have done it upon a required emergency, and 
for adequate ends? 

It is recorded: that prayer swept thousands of the 
aliens into the charnel house; disclosed to vision 
scenes in the spiritual world; shut the mouth of lions; 
preserved unscathed, in the seven-times heated fiery 
furnace; hushed the raging winds and the tempest- 



358 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

uous sea; exorcised demons; vitalized dead limbs; 
opened sealed eyes; brought the dead out of sepul- 
chres; transformed bitter persecutors into zealous 
saints. All these averments are as difficult of cre- 
dence to the incredulous, as the staying of the sun. 
What wilt thou do with them, sceptical and unbeliev- 
ing? They were all possible to the Omnipotent. The 
emergencies were requisite for the divine interposi- 
tion. There are times when God specially and more 
manifestly works. Thus has He always done. Thus 
will He always do. It might be expected. 

In the heavenly vision, there was^ seen in the hands 
of the representatives of the celestial hierarc^hies, 
golden bowls, full of burning incense, which are the 
prayers of saints, JRev. v: 8. There, they are all 
lodged. They are not, then, in vain. They reach 
their destination. They avail, and prevail, and that 
"much." 

'Tis a blessed gift — that of some who are endowed 
on behalf of the great congregation, to pass with such 
propriety, awe-hushed and awe-hushing, into the 
presence of the Almighty — the Father — with such ap- 
propriateness of invocation to that Almightiness and 
Fatherhood; to be able to specify with such definite- 
ness, distinctness, and wealth of tongue, all the sweet 
and bitter experiences, all the wants and woes of wor- 
shippers, and all the refined and multiform goodness 
of God in application thereto. Then, the rapt soul, 
each represented soul, having thus its multiplied,' di- 
verse, individual aspirations defined, voiced and con- 
veyed in golden-mouthed, divinely-perfumed utter- 
ances to our Father, whispers to itself: // is good to 



OUR PRAYER. 359 

be here. Let us make three tabernacles. Let us 
abide here. Eicher, by far, than all the gifts of mel- 
ody and speech. These are more redolent of earth; 
this, of Heaven.^ 

And now. Our Father, Savior, Intercessor, Sancti- 
fier, and Comforter — Triune God! we lift our hearts 
to Thee. Thou art King of Kings and Lord of Lords. 
Thou art worthy to receive the glory, and the honor, 
and the power; for Thou didst create all things, and 
through Thy will they were, and were created. Rev, 
iv: 11, The blessing, and the honor, and the glory, 
and the dominion be unto Him Who sitteth upon the 
throne, and unto the Lamb, forever and ever, Bev. 
v: 13, With all the sanctities of Heaven, the multi- 
tudes of the Redeemed— out of every kindred, tongue, 
people and nation, we cast the crowns of our salva- 
tion at Thy feet, and cry Alleluia! 

We cry: — Sanctify all those whom Thou hast called 
— disciples of every name, in sacred or secular profes- 
sion, whether prophets, apostles, evangelists, pastors, 
teachers, oral or editorial, given for the edification 
and perfection of the saints, until they shall all come 

I. "Let us unite in prajer." What a welcome to near com- 
munion with the Heavenly Father is there in the tremulous ten- 
derness of that invitation ! This is a solemn reality, and no formal 
rite to him. The Infinite is here, around all, within all. What 
awful, yet confiding reverence, what relying affection, what pro- 
found gratitude, what unutterable longing, what consciousness of 
intimate spiritual relationship, what vast anticipations of pro- 
gressive destiny, inspiring these few, simple, measured, most va- 
riously modulated words ! How the very peace of heaven seems 
to enter and settle down upon the hushed assembly ! — Memoirs of 
Dr. Charming. 



360 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

into the unity of the faith, to the fullness of the 
knowledge of Thee. Make them all one. Sanctify 
them through Thy Truth. Guide them into all of it — 
treasured in the literal Word, speaking out of the 
Heavens, or from the Earth, expressed out of history, 
from individual experiences, or through the revela- 
tions of the Spirit. Help them to comprehend it. 
Perfect, fortify, strengthen, establish them. Karaf)ri6ai 

vfjid'iy drrjpi^aiy d^svGodaty B^s/ieXiaodai. I Peter V : 10. 

— To know Thy love, which passeth knowledge. Then 
may their carriage comport with their sacred profes- 
sion, and the messages they deliver. Then may not 
the "earthen vessel" be despised for its fragility or 
frailty, but be prized for the nobleness, the priceless- 
ness of the sanctifying "treasure" it contains. Teach 
them when to speak, and when to be silent. Give 
them clearness of perception, vigor of thought, fertil- 
ity in illustration, aptness in teaching, justness and 
discrimination in reproof, grace in utterance, effective- 
ness in delivery, and a holy life. Impart to them 
faith — Thy gift — though it be in small measure; it 
may yet be potent enough to remove mountains of 
material or moral obstacle, to the leveling of fortresses 
of Satan, and to the salvation of hitherto incorrigible 
sinners. Then shall the work of their ministry be 
enforced. Then shall it be achieved. Exorcise them 
of morbid asceticism; of natural or acquired morose- 
ness; of professional sanctimoniousness; of all hy- 
pocrisy, pretense and sham; and make them real, art- 
less, genial, like Thyself. Possess and sway their 
souls with profound sympathy for men in every con- 
dition of life, in all the vicissitudes of joy and sorrow, 



OUR PRAYER. 361 

of prosperity or adversity; — the potent in all positions 
and relations with their burden of responsibility; the 
sordid in their avarice; the rich in their superfluity; 
the poor in their poverty; the sick in their affliction; 
the wretched in their grief. Help them to discern 
gifts given to Thy people, and to bring them into use 
for Thee. Clothe them with humility as a garment. 
Exorcise them of selfishness, as ever to be denied a 
resting place in a believer's heart. Purify them of 
unsanctified ambition, and of self-seeking — the well- 
known bane of Thy people in all ages. Let Thy 
Word be in them as a burning fire shut up in their 
bones, when they stand between Thee — ^the Living 
God — and men, dead in trespasses and sins. Make 
them true, pure, gentle, beautiful in their lives, easy 
to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, with- 
out partiality and without hypocrisy. Beautiful 
within, they shall be lovely without. Then, may 
those taking knowledge, say: How beautiful upon the 
mountains are the feet of them that bring good tid- 
ings, that publish salvation, that say unto Zion, Thy 
God reigneth. Let their first and last resort be to 
Thee — ^watching thereunto with all persistence, that 
utterance may be given unto them when speaking in 
Thy name, to make known with boldness the mystery 
of the Gospel, and to speak boldly as it becomes 
them to speak. 

Save them and us, at last, through the riches of 
Thine Infinite Grace! 

Now unto Him — that Great Shepherd of the sheep, 
Who is able to preserve thee, Fisher of Men, from 



362 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

stumbling, and to present thee spotless before the 
presence of His glory with exceeding Joy: — 

To Him — the only God our Savior, be Glory, 
AND Majesty, Dominion, and Power, Now and Ever- 
more. Amen! Jude 24-25. 

Lord, I have lain 

Barren too long, and fain 
I would redeem the time, that I may be 

Fruitful to Thee; 
Fruitful in knowledge, faith, obedience, 

Ere I go hence ; 

That when I come 

At harvest to be reaped and brought home, 

Thine angels maj 

My soul in Thy celestial garner lay, 
Where perfect joy and bliss 
Eternal is. 

If to entreat 

A crop of purest wheat, 
A blessing too transcendent should appear, 

For me to hear. 
Lord, make me what Thou wilt, so Thou wilt take 

What Thou dost make, 

And not disdain 

To house me, though among Thy coarsest grain ; 

So I may be 

Laid with the gleanings gathered by Thee, 
When the full sheaves are spent, 

I am content. — Francis paries. 



ILLUSTRATIVE AND SUGGESTIVE. 



The time for toil is past, and night is come — 
The last and saddest of the harvest eves ; 
Worn out with labor long and wearisome, 
Drooping and faint the reapers hasten home. 
Each laden with his sheaves. 

Last of the laborers, Thj feet I gain, 
Lord of the harvest! and my spirit grieves 
That I am burdened not so much with grain, 
As with a heaviness of heart and brain ; — 
Master, behold my sheaves ! 

Pew, light and worthless, — yet their trifling weight 
Through all my frame a weary aching leaves ; 
For long I struggled with my hapless fate. 
And staid and toiled till it was dark and late — 
Yet these are all my sheaves. 

Full well I know I have more tares than wheat — 
Brambles and flowers, dry stalks and withered leaves ! 
Wherefore I blush and weep, as at Thy feet 
I kneel down reverently, and repeat, 
Master! behold my sheaves! 

I know these blossoms, clustering heavily 
With evening dew upon their folded leaves, 
Can claim no value nor utility-r- 
Therefore shall fragrancy and beauty be 
The glory of my sheaves. 

So do I gather strength and hope anew ; 
For well I know thy patient love perceives 
Not what I did, but what I strove to do ; 
And though the full ripe ears be sadly few, 
Thou wilt accept my sheaves. 

— Atlantic Monthly, 



364 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

Prayer — the church's banquet; angel's age; 

God's breath in man returning to his birth ; 

The soul in paraphrase; heart in pilgrimage; 

The Christian plummet, sounding heaven and earth ; 

Engine against th' Almighty; sinner's tower; 

Reversed thunder; Christ's side-piercing spear; 

The six-days w^orld transposing in an hour; 

A kind of tune, which all things hear and fear ; 

Softness and peace, and joy, and love, and bliss ; 

Exalted manna; gladness of the best; 

Heaven in ordinary; man "well drest; 

The milky way; the bird of paradise; 

Church bells beyond the stars heard; the soul's blood; 

The land of spices ; something understood. 

— George Herbert. 

More things are wrought by prayer 

Than this world dreams of. Wherefore, let thy voice 

Rise like a fountain for me night and day. 

For what are men better than sheep or goats 

That nourish a blind life within the brain, 

If, knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer 

Both for themselves and those who call them friend.^ 

For so the whole round earth is every w^ay 

Bound by gold chains about the feet of God. 

— Tennyson. 

Be not afraid to pray — to pray is right. 

Pray, if thou canst, with hope; but ever pray, 

Though hope be weak, or sick with long delay ; 
Pray in the darkness, if there be no light. 
Far is the time, remote from human sight. 

When war and discord on the earth shall cease ; 

Yet every prayer for universal peace 
Avails the blessed time to expedite. 
Whate'er is good to wish, ask that of heaven, 

Though it be what thou canst not hope to see ; 
Pray to be pefect, though material leaven 

Forbid the spirit so on earth to be ; 
But if for any wish thou darest not pray, 
Then pray to God to cast that wish away. 

— Hartley Coleridge. 

Think with yourself, how easily, how insensibly, by one turn of 
thought, God can lead you into a large scene of usefulness ; he 
can teach you to lay hold on a clew which may guide your 
thoughts with safety and ease through all the difficulties of an in- 
tricate subject. Think how easily the Author of your being can 



PRAYER. 365 

direct your motions by His providence, so that the glance of an 
eye, or a word striking the ear, or a sudden turn of the fancy 
shall conduct you to a train of happy sentiments. By His secret 
and supreme method of government. He can draw you to read 
such a treatise, or to converse with such a person, who may give 
you more light into some deep subject in an hour, than you could 
obtain by a month of your own solitary labor. Think with your- 
self, with how much ease the Spirit of God can cast into your 
mind some useful suggestion, and give a happy turn to your own 
thoughts, or the thoughts of those with whom you converse, 
whence you may derive unspeakable light and satisfaction in a 
matter that has long puzzled and entangled you; He can show 
you a path which the vulture's eye has not seen, and lead you by 
some unknown gate or portals out of a wilderness and labyrinth 
of difficulties, where you have been long wandering. — Dr, Watts, 

I stand, in ordinary health, before my great congregation to 
pray for them. Hundreds and hundreds of times, as I rose to pray 
and glanced at the congregation, I could not keep back the tears. 
There came to my mind such a sense of their wants, there were 
so many hidden sorrows, there were so many weights and burdens, 
there were so many doubts, there were so many states of weak- 
ness, there were so many dangers, so many perils, there were such 
histories — not world histories, but eternal world histories — I had 
such a compassion for them, my soul so longed for them, that it 
seemed to me as though I could scarcely open my mouth to speak 
for them. And when I take my people and carry them before 
God to plead for them, I never plead for myself as I do for them. 
I never could. — H. W, Beecher. 

In this original arrangement, allowance might have been made 
for praying — that our prayers may be as truly a part of the gearing 
of the universe as events, and that consequently, so far from being 
useless, they are essential. 

We ought to be in so constant communication with Him, that 
whenever a slight trial comes, whether of faith, or patience, or 
love, and whenever a little blessing flutters its white wings softly 
over our heads, we shall immediately, naturally, without preamble, 
or circumlocution, or hesitation, or stoppage, lift up our hearts to 
God. — Gail Hamilton, 



366 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

In all Mohammedan lands, when the hour of prayer sounds 
from the mosque or minaret, at noon, or at the evening twilight, 
all business is momently suspended. The trader leaves his bar- 
gain incomplete and spreads his carpet on the floor of his shop, 
the sailor on the Nile falls prostrate on the deck, and if you enter 
the mosque, so silent that you thought it empty, you find it filled 
with absorbed worshippers. 

It is true that our prayers will not induce God to change His 
plans ; but it may be a part of His plan to give us when we ask 
that which He would not otherwise bestow. 

They who come to God must believe that He is, and that He is 
the re warder of all those who diligently seek Him, 

— Least amount of prayer in public congregations, largest in so- 
cial companies, largest alone. 

That prayer shall be effectual, it must have three qualities — in 
truth or sincerity; in faith ; in the Spirit of Christ. 

Prayer is the highest act of the human soul, the most sublime 
moment in human life, the most wonderful privilege of man. — 
y. F, Clarke. 

The man who does not exclude from his mind the idea of the 
world — the idea that everything here must be sought intermedi- 
ately, that every effect has its natural cause, that a wish is only to 
be attained when it is made an end and the corresponding means 
are put in operation — such a man does not pray ; he only works. 

He has recourse to prayer in the certainty, that he can do more, 
infinitely more, by prayer than by all the efforts of reason and all 
the agencies of nature — in the conviction that prayer possesses 
superhuman and supernatural powers. But in prayer, he applies 
immediately to God. . . . But an immediate act of God is a 
miracle. . . . Every true prayer is a miracle, an act of the 
wonder-working power. 

Social prayer is more effectual than isolated prayer. Com- 
munity enhances the force of emotion, heightens confidence. 
What we are unable to do alone, we are able to do with others. 
The sense of solitude is the sense of limitation ; the sense of com- 
munity is the sense of freedom. Hence it is, that men, when 
threatened by the destructive powers of nature, crowd together. — 
Feuerbach. 



PRAYEE. 367 

Justin Martyr observes of the philosophers in his time : *' They 
rather seek to convince us also, that the Divinity extends His care 
to the great whole and to the several kinds, but not to me and 
you, not to men as individuals. Hence it is useless to pray to Him ; 
for everything occurs according to the unchangeable laws of an 
endless cycle." — Neayider's History of Christian Religion, 

This is not a mere question between Tyndall and the theolo- 
gians, but is an issue between him and every burdened soul that 
wants the comfort and the help of prayer. It is a fight /r^ aris et 
focis; for altars and hearths. Every mother with a sick babe upon 
her lap, lifting her tearful eye to Heaven, every husband that 
kneels by the bed of his suffering wife, every wife that utters a pe- 
tition for a husband far away upon the ocean, every parent that 
follows absent son or daughter with a prayer, every perplexed and 
anxious soul that seeks the promised wisdom from on high, every 
tempted and fainting saint that implores divine grace, every tor- 
tured spirit conscious of sin and seeking at the mercy seat for par- 
don, cries out in agony against the doctrine of Professor Tyndall 
and his philosophic comrades. To deny them the resource of 
prayer is to doom them to despair ! — Advance. — Editor Patton. 

I have often seen men so rapt that they could not move till the 
organ aroused them to the certainty that the preacher had ceased 
to speak. To such utterance, a prayer of Alexander Knox seemed 
to be the only fitting close : *' Deepen these impressions in me, 
q Lord." 

Prayer is truest when there is most of instinct and least of rea- 
son. — F, W, Robertson. 

An hour of solitude passed in sincere and earnest prayer, or in 
conflict with, and conquest over a single passion, or subtle bosom 
sin, will teach more of thought, will more effectually awaken the 
faculty, and form the habit of reflection, than a year's study in the 
schools without them. 

The act of praying, with the whole concentration of the facul- 
ties, is the very highest energy of which the human heart is ca- 
pable. — Coleridge. 

You can pray for your enemies with such desperate magnan- 
imity, as to create the suspicion, that you would behead every one 
of them if a fair opportunity ever occurred. 



868 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

The length of a prayer ought not to be measured by time. . . 
I have heard some prayers which I could have vv^ished to go on 
forever — so wise, so tender, so deeply experimental, and so earnest 
were they ; under their influence one felt that God was nigh at 
hand, and longed that He might " abide with us." — Ad Cleru7n. — 
Parker. 

Pray as earnestly as if we could do nothing by ourselves ; and 
at the same to work as hard as if we could do everything by our- 
selves. — Thoughts of a Country Parson, 

To excite the spirit of prayer in the congregation is the test of 
true public devotion. — Dr, Channing. 

That ancient poet seems to me to have had a great deal of sense 
and reason, who, having very imprudent friends, that every day 
asked God for such things as seemed good, and yet were very bad 
for them, composed for them this prayer : *' Great God, give us 
the good things that are necessary for us, whether we ask them or 
not ; and keep evil things from us, even when we ask them of 
thee. — Socrates^ in Plato. — Second Alcibiades, 

How beauteous were the marks divine 
That in Thy meekness used to shine; 
That lit Thy lonely pathway, trod 
In wondrous love, O Son of God! 

Oh, who like Thee, so calm, so bright, 
So pure, so made to live in light — 
Oh, who like Thee did ever go 
So patient through a world of woe.'' 

Oh, who like Thee so humbly bore 
The scorn, the scoffs of men before? 
So meek, forgiving, Godlike, high, 
So glorious in humility. 

Oh, in Thy light be mine to go. 

Illuming all my way of woe! 

And give me ever on the road. 

To trace Thy footsteps. Son of God I — ^. C. Coxe, 



ILLUSTRATIVE AND SUGGESTIVE. 

ADDITIONAL. 



[The following, culled from the author's reading since these 
chapters were in tjpe, are appended, as additionally " Illustrative 
and Suggestive," for the specified chapters.] 

CHAPTER I. 

To say that the human race, as it now exists, has been naturally 
developed by the operation of perfect and unchangeable laws, ac- 
cording to evolutionists, or by a mode of action entirely in accord- 
ance with the design of a perfect intelligence, is but to say, that 
every stage of the process must have been, and must still be per- 
fect. Such an idea excludes from the world anything in the na- 
ture of transgression of sin — which is the transgression of law. 
. . . The natural operation of unvarying or unchangeable law 
cannot confer, on the subject of its government, any power to an- 
tagonize itself — the law. Otherwise, that law has ceased to be 
unchangeable. Hence, a creature having the qualification of free 
agency, or the power to transgress, or to antagonize the law, could 
not possibly have been produced by natural development. Nat- 
ural development is utterly inconceivable, except as the result of 
an unchanging mode of action or law. . . . The necessities of 
this theory force the conclusion, that all, that we now call sin, all 
the injustice and debauchery among mankind, is not sin at all; 
. . . because produced by the operation of a perfect and un- 
varying mode of action or law. . . . Christianity rests on the 
idea that there is a necessity for an intervention, and that such 
does actually take place — Condensed from " Civilization : Is Its 
Cause Natural or Supernatural? " {Phila.) 

The Brahmo Somaj Sect in India. — Kesab Chunder Sen, an 
apostle of this sect, recently deceased, said to a Calcutta corre- 
spondent of the Chicago Tribune^ in the autumn of 1883: 

"Great in goodness is the Bible. Assuredly, if your people 

?: 



370 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

were as good as your Book, India would be Christianized in five 
years." A little "book of faith" which Mr. Sen gave me at that 
time contains the following (literally) as the " creed " that Ram 
Mohan Rai, the founder, wrote: There are fourteen articles: *'(i) 
The bases of faith are Nature and intuition. (2) All truth is ac- 
ceptable. (3) Religion is a progressive form of truth. (4) The 
Brahmo Somaj doctrines underlie all religion. (5) Belief in a Su- 
preme God. (6) Belief in immortality of the soul. (7) Repent- 
ance the only way to salvation. (8) Belief in efficacy of prayer. 
(9) Belief in God^s love. (10) Worship is love of God and His 
works. (11) God can be worshipped at any time and place, (12) 
Elevation and purity of mind necessary to holiness. (13) No 
faith is put in stated rites and ceremonies. (14) Theoretically 
there should be no caste." " We cull truth from the Rig Veda, 
the Bible, the Pitakas, and the Koran, and so I dream to myself 
this question : Why cannot Hindoo Buddhist, Christian and Mo- 
hammedan, become a unity in the Somaj ? All dispensations are 
but components of one divine scheme — that is, of the New Dispen- 
sation, the Somaj." . . One must admire its members for 
their reforms. The first and most important of these is the aboli- 
tion of caste. Others are being expressed in the legislative affairs 
of India, and among them are restrictions to monogamy, remodel- 
ing of marriage customs, emancipation and education of women, 
abolition of the worship of ancestors, removal of the prohibition of 
widows' marriages, abolition of infanticide, revolution of social 
ceremonies, education, temperance, and a general moral regen- 
eration. 

The Greeks, who travelled in India centuries before the Chris- 
tian era, were enthusiastic in their admiration of Hindoo morals. 
They told of kings spending the whole day in the administration 
of justice, of the honesty of traders, and the general dislike of liti- 
gation ; of the infrequency of theft, though houses were left open 
without bolts or bars ; and of the custom of loaning money without 
seals or witnesses. They praised the truthfulness of the men and 
the chastity of the women. — Oriental Religions, — SamH Johnson, 

The religion, or rather the doctrine of the disciples of Confucius 
is Positivism. They care nothing about the origin, the creation, 
or the end of the world, and very little about long philosophical 



ILLUSTRATIVE AND SUGGESTIVE. 371 

lucubrations. They confine their cares wholly to this life ; they 
ask of science and letters only what is needful to enable them to 
go through their various occupations; of great principles, only 
their practical consequences ; and of morality, only what is politi- 
cal and utilitarian. . . . They put all speculative questions 
aside, to attach themselves exclusively to the positive ; their 
religion is but a kind of material civilization, and their philosophy 
the art of living in peace, of obeying and commanding. Their re- 
ligion has neither altars, images, nor priests ; the Mandarins are 
its sole ministers, and when on some solemn occasions it is thought 
desirable to offer some homage to Heaven, it is they who officiate. 

All the towns in China have temples raised to the honor of 
Confucius, and more than three hundred millions of men proclaim 
him with one voice the saint f>ar excellence. 

The second religion of China is regarded by its disciples as the 
primitive one of its most ancient inhabitants. The priests and 
priestesses of this worship are devoted to celibacy, and practice 
magic, astrology, necromancy, and a thousand absurdities. They 
are called Taosse, or Doctors of Reason, because their fundamental 
dogma, taught by the renowned Lao-tze, is that of a primordial 
reason, which has created the world. 

[The principles of the third religion of China — Buddhism — are 
stated in the Appendix to the First Chapter.] 

Chinese — a civilized nation almost wholly removed from re- 
ligious influence, "without God in the world," and falling rapidly 
to decay, from no other cause than that of internal moral 
corruption. 

A radical, profound indifference to all religion — an indifference 
that is scarcely conceivable by any who have not witnessed it — 
is, in our opinion, the real, grand obstacle that has so long 
opposed the progress of Christianity in China. The Chinese is 
so completely absorbed in temporal interests, in the things that 
fall under his senses, that his whole life is only materialism put in 
action. . . . God — the soul — a future life — he believes in 
none of them, or, rather, he never thinks about them at all. . . . 
He admits everything, approves of all you say, does not find the 
least difficulty, or make the smallest objection. . . . He makes 
a beautiful speech against idolatry, and in favor of Christianity.^ 



372 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

. . . To listen to him, you would think him just ready to be- 
come a Christian — in fact, that he was such already ; yet he has 
not advanced a single step ; — he likes very well to talk about it; 
but it is as of a thing not made for him — that he personally has 
nothing to do with. . . . Religion is to him simply a fashion, 
which those may follow who have a taste for it. 

The Chinese have so elaborately developed their system of lying 
and deceit, that it is very difficult to believe them, even when they 
do speak the truth, 

The nation has proclaimed the famous formula — the three re- 
ligions are but one — this phrase is on the lips of every Chinese : 
" Religions are many ; reason is one ; we are all brothers." 

In the great towns the multitude of paupers is terrific. . . . 
Though they have commercial, or industrial, or gambling socie- 
ties, they have none for the solace of the sick or the unfortunate. 
— UAbbe M. Hue. — China. 

The following are culled from the very able, exhaustive and 
learned volumes of Sam'l Johnson on Oriental Religions — spe- 
cially the Chinese. His views are somewhat roseate when used 
to the disparagement of Christianity. All will admit the ethical 
correctness of most of their theoretic teachings, and of some of 
their fruits. They are only an additional illustration — from the 
earliest periods — of the utter inadequacy of " Natural or Rational 
Religion," so styled, to rescue races and nations, and the men 
composing them, from the gravitation downward. None of them 
have ever grappled successfully with human nature for its redemp- 
tion and sanctification. A consummation of Revelation in the 
manifestation of God through Christ — in the pledged and mani- 
fested omnipotency of His Spirit — was needed. It is in Christian- 
ity. The final hope of men is in it. 

Hue says : European merchants who have had dealings with 
the great commercial houses of China, are unanimous in extolling 
the irreproachable probity of their conduct. 

Medhurst tells us, that for thirty years he lost nothing by theft 
in China but a small revolver ; that the Chinese take no such pre- 
cautions as we do against fraud in dealing with each other ; that 
large sums are constantly entrusted to native hands in the trans- 
actions of the interior, where the temptation to embezzlement is 



ILLUSTRATIVE AND SUGGESTIVE. 373 

very great. It is well known, that Chinese merchants do not gen- 
erally give nor require written agreements in their dealings with 
foreigners. Objects of value are exposed to sale as it would not 
be possible to do in England, and lines of coolies carry money 
freely through the streets, without protection from police. Scarth 
states, that not one per cent, of the tea bought at Canton was ex 
amined by the buyers. Davis describes the public porters as so 
trustworthy, that not a single article was lost by the British em- 
bassies in all the distance between the Northern and Southern ex- 
tremes of the empire. 

Popular education has reached a considerable degree of advance- 
ment in all Buddhist countries. Every town, almost every se- 
cluded village, has its monastery occupied by monks, who either 
with or without pay, give instruction to children, affording to all 
the means of acquiring elementary knowledge; so that it is really 
rare to find persons who can neither read nor write. There are 
institutions everywhere for the sick, orphaned, and poor ; wells in 
every desert; shady groves along every dusty road; everywhere 
missionaries of comfort and relief ; everywhere tender mercies to- 
wards the lower creatures ; and this is not confined to regulations 
in restraint of their wanton abuse and destruction, but carried even 
to that extravagance of care and protection which naturally be- 
longs to an idealism without sense of practical limits. . . . 
Has everywhere sought to abolish bloody sacrifices. . . , Con- 
stantly discouraged capital punishment, etc. 

Navarete found the prisons cleaner and more orderly than those 
of Europe. There is a custom of administering wine to criminals 
before execution, to diminish the pains of death. 

There are orphan asyliyns in almost every city, and frequently 
in villages ; societies for aid to widows ; free day schools every- 
where supported by the rich; public asylums for the sick, old and 
poor, sustained by the government — and, as these are apt to be ill- 
provided, support by the clans of their own poor; a general belief 
in the meritoriousness of alms-giving, and of the inauspiciousness 
of sending beggars away empty ; gratuitous distribution of medi- 
cines, and of books of moral edification. Not less numerous are 
societies for aiding indigent persons in paying marriage and burial 
expenses ; for establishing granaries ; for building roads and 



374 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

bridges to facilitate industry ; for saving drowning persons, and 
furnishing biers for the drowned ; for taking care of foundlings 
and lepers. There are no hospitals for the insane, for deaf mutes, 
cripples, or the blind ; yet not so many of these unfortunates are 
seen in Chinese cities as in European. It is generally admitted 
that lunacy is extremely rare. Mutual aid associations have their 
bureaus and halls in the cities ; and in California, they not only 
provide for the poor, but send back the sick and dead to China. It 
is common for wealthy people to furnish great jars of tea under 
canopies, for travellers and wearied laborers, and especially on the 
mountain roads. There is a college at Ningpo to aid the poor in 
getting educated, deriving its income from lands and products, 
and founded two hundred years ago. . . . Mercantile credit is 
everywhere sustained by mutual insurance companies, by which 
aid is given in business difficulties. So universal are mutual loan 
societies, that, out of twenty millions of people, scarcely a thous- 
and will be found who are not in the course of their lives 
associated. 

" Remember," says the Shuking, '' the proper end of punish- 
ment is to make an end of punishing." " Deal with evil as if it 
were a disease in your own person, and with the people as if you 
were guarding your own child." '' Better run the risk of error, 
than put to death an innocent person." " Rewards, not punish- 
ments, should descend to one's children." . . . The Tcheouli 
prescribes the teaching of eight leading rules and nine ties of mu- 
tual benefit, as essential for guiding the people and preserving 
them in harmony. The first of the eight is family affection ; the 
second, reverence for age ; the last, kindness to strangers. It pre- 
scribes also, as points to be aimed at by the Minister of Instruc- 
tion, the diffusion of love for the young, care for the old, succor 
for the distressed and bereaved, pity for the destitute, considera- 
tion for the sick. 

Alcohol in Western countries kills ten persons to one victim of 
opium in China. Delirium tremens is unknown. 

No nation in the world, of whatever religion, possesses a litera- 
ture so pure. It has been said, that there is not a single sentence 
in the whole of the classical books, nor in their annotations, that 
may not, when translated word for word, be read aloud with pro- 



ILLUSTRATIVE AND SUGGESTIVE. 375 

priety in any family circle in England. Not a sign of human sac- 
rifice, of the deification of vice, of licentious rites and orgies, exists 
in China; and not an indecent idol is exposed in any temple. . . 
the whole series of reading books used in the schools of China 
does not contain a single impure precept; there is scarcely one 
noble conception of duty and humanity that cannot be found rep- 
resented in the daily recitations of these children of a grand ethical 
literature. 

The children of the people are taught to love parents, respect 
superiors, honor teachers, select friends. 

Chinese civilization rests on the systematic preference of moral 
to physical forces. This is as true of its political method as of its 
literal culture. . . . Government itself is constantly presented 
in the schools as resting on moral sanctions, the military arm sub- 
ordinated to the civil, the military spirit disciplined, not to say 
systematically repressed, upon grounds of conscience. . . , 
The duty of patient endurance of evils, and the virtue of laborious 
tasks in the interest of order and unity, are the substance of a na- 
tional gospel. 

No such age is to be found in Chinese history as that of England 
in the middle of the last century, when the statesmen were almost 
universally gross and immoral in speech and life, and the people 
ignorant, brutal, and uncared for to an extent now inconceivable. 
Jobbers at that time returned all the borough members of Parlia- 
ment, and only 160,000 out of 8,000,000 were electors. 

The educational system secures the state the service of its best 
and ablest men ; the union of local with national interests effected 
by competitive examinations in every large city for honors pro- 
ceeding from the capital. . . . The dissemination of laws, 
edicts and exhortations — often carved on marble and posted in the 
streets. 

A sagacious Chinaman once said to me (Neumann): "True, 
you are our superiors in science and discovery. But our moral 
principle is much more efficient, our masses are much less vicious 
and self-seeking than your Christians — such, at least, as we see in 
our country." 

The Taosse declares: "It is a crime to enrich one's self by 
fraud ; to give bad goods in return for good ; to seek riches eagerly ; 



376 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

to destroy the property of others ; to adulterate merchandise ; to 
use short measures ; to borrow and not return ; to usurp the fruits 
of other men's labor or skill ; to get office by cunning or fraud ; to 
buy lying praises; to harm weaker persons in order to advance 
one's self ; to forsake public good for private ends ; to fawn on su- 
periors ; to disorder administration, by rewarding the guilty, punish- 
ing the innocent; to break law and receive bribes; to deceive the 
simple ; to make light of the people's life." 

The heathen government of China thus appealed to the Chris- 
tian government of England : ^* How, then, can you bear to seek 
gain by means of an article so injurious to man, and without com- 
punction of conscience ? We have heard that you, the ruxer of 
your honorable kingdom, have an expanded heart; and you must, 
therefore, be unwilling to do to others what you would not desire 
to have done to yourself." 

It said (to the traders in the drug): " Shall, then, our people die, 
and your lives not be required ? You are destroying human life 
that you may get gain." 

CHAPTER II. 

In the antediluvian world, when the life of man was so pro- 
tracted, there was comparatively little need for writing. Tradition 
answered every purpose to which writing, in any kind of charac- 
ters, could be subservient; and the necessity of erecting monu- 
ments to perpetuate public events could scarcely have suggested 
itself; as, during those times, there could be little danger appre- 
hended of any important fact becoming obsolete, its history having 
to pass through very few hands, and all those — friends and relatives 
in the most proper sense of the terms ; for they lived in an insu- 
lated state, under a patriarchal government. Thus it was easy for 
Moses to be satisfied of the truth of all he relates in the Book of 
Genesis, as the accounts came to him through the medium of a 
very few persons. From Adam to Noah there was but 07ie man 
necessary to the transmission of the history of this period of 1656 
years. Adam died in the year of the world 930, and Lamech, the 
father of Noah, was born in the year 874 ; so that Adam and La- 
mech were contemporaneous for 56 years. Methuselah, the grand- 
father of Noah, was born in the year of the world 687, and died in 
the year 1656, so that he lived to see both Adam and Lamech — 



ILLUSTRATIVE AND SUGGESTIVE. 377 

from whom (Adam) doubtless he acquired the knowledge of this 
history, and was likewise contemporary with Noah for 600 years. 
In like manner Shem connected Noah and Abraham, having lived 
to converse with both ; as Isaac did with Abraham and Joseph, 
from whom these things might be easily conveyed to Moses by 
Amram, who was contemporary with Joseph. Supposing, then, 
all the curious facts recorded in the Book of Genesis to have had 
no other authority than the tradition already referred to, they 
would stand upon a foundation of credibility superior to any that 
the most reputable of the ancient Greek and Latin histories can 
boast. — Hornets Introduction. — Quoted by Geo. Razvlinson. 

It is highly probable that Moses had access to records and docu- 
ments which had been preserved in the families of the Jews. The 
detailed account of genealogies, the dates of events, and their cir- 
cumstances, the number of the years of the lives of the Patriarchs 
— all these things could hardly be learned in a manner so precise 
and exact, except from written documents. — Calmet, — ^oted by 
Geo. Rawlinson, 

CHAPTER III. 

Our wishes are presentiments of the faculties which lie within 
us, and harbingers of that which we shall be in a condition to per- 
form. — Goethe, — Wakrheit und DicJitung. 

CHAPTER IV. 

The Gospel of the Christian religion, when preached succes- 
sively to all the nations of the earth, excited no astonishment, for 
it had been everywhere prophesied, and was universally expected. 
A Divine Incarnation, the birth of a Man-God, was the common 
faith of humanity — the great dogma that under forms, more or 
less mysterious, appears in the oldest modes of worship, and may 
be traced in the most ancient traditions. The Messiah, the Re- 
deemer, promised to fallen man in the terrestrial Paradise, had 
been announced uninterruptedly from age to age ; and the nation 
specially chosen to be the depositary of this promise had spread 
the hope abroad among men for centuries before its fulfilment; 
such was, under Providence, the result of the great revolutions 
which agitated the Jews, and dispersed them over Asia and the 
and the world at large. . . . When the Christ appeared, it was 



378 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

not only in Judea, among the Hebrews, that He was looked for; 
He w^as expected also, at Rome, among the Goths and Scandina- 
vians, in India, in China, in High Asia especially, where almost 
all religious systems are founded on the dogma of a Divine In- 
carnation. . . . This expectation is often mentioned in the 
Puranas, the mythological books of India. . . . 

. . . A short time before the birth of Jesus Christ, not only 
the Jews, but even the Romans, on the authority of the Sibylline 
books and the decision of the Sacred College of Augurs, in Etruria, 
considered that this important event was approaching. The Cap- 
ital of the Roman world was alarmed by prodigies, as well as by 
ancient prophecies, announcing that an emanation of the Divinity 
was about to appear, and a regeneration of the world to take place. 
. . . The Conscript Fathers, in consequence of a prediction, 
for months kept repeating that, " Nature was about to bring forth, 
and to place a king on the throne of the world." The Senate, ter- 
rified by these rumors, and by the prodigies which were reported 
to have taken place in Rome, issued a decree, forbidding fathers 
of families to bring up any child that should be born for a year, or 
to adopt any that should be found exposed. Those Conscript 
Fathers, however, whose wives were in a state of pregnancy, con- 
trived to prevent the registration of this decree, in the hope that 
this king-child might be one of theirs. . . . At the same time, 
the emperor of the Indies, alarmed by the general diffusion of 
prophecies, which he supposed to menace the fall of his empire 
and his own ruin, sent out messengers to inquire whether in any 
place such a child had really been born, and, if they found him, to 
put him to death. 

The idea of a Divine Incarnation prevailed equally among the 
Gothic tribes of the North. They were so perplexed and agitated 
by prophetic rumors from the East, that they sent embassies to 
seek for the Divine Being so impatiently expected over the whole 
world ; and it was these strange embassies that formed the founda- 
tion of the Edda. , . . Such an event was confidently looked 
for in the West and the East, in Persia, India, and China, and 
even among the wandering tribes of Upper Asia. In the inter- 
mediate countries, as among the Hebrews, it was the fundamental 
doctrine of religion. 



ILLUSTBATIVE AND SUGGESTIVE. 379 

Through information from the Jews in China, Confucius was 
enabled to announce in his writings, that there should be born, in 
the West, a Saint Who had been expected more than three thous- 
and years. ^' Vast and extensive as the heavens, deep as the abyss, 
He will be respected by all nations; the whole world will believe 
His words, all will applaud His action. His name. — Hue. — Chris- 
tianity in China^ Tartary and Thibet. 

If the coming of Christ was the explanation of a marvellous lit- 
erature which must ever remain otherwise a hopeless enigma, and 
if the rise of Christian literature, and the development of history 
for eighteen centuries since, have tended to prove and confirm the 
truth of that explanation as nothing else can prove it, here is a 
manifest and gigantic fact in the world's history, which cannot be 
set aside, however it may be interpreted. There is, and can be, 
no consistent interpretation of this fact but one. . . . The 
very existence of the religion of the Christ is itself a message from 
God. No discoveries as to the ultimate origin of man, the unity 
of the human race, the antiquity of the earth, or what not, can 
avail to set aside that message. 

Christianity in itself is the most remarkable phenomenon that 
history presents to our contemplation. It has already far outlived 
in its duration the utmost limits of time that can be assigned to 
the dominion of ancient Rome. — Rev. S. Leathes. — The Religion 
of the Christ. 

Our English Bible . . . was not made by one man, or at 
one time, but centuries and churches brought it to perfection. 
. . . The Liturgy, admired for its energy and pathos, is an an- 
thology of the piety of ages and nations, a translation of the 
prayers and forms of the Catholic church — these collected, too, in 
long periods, from the prayers and meditations of every saint and 
sacred writer, all over the world. — Emerson. 

For page 141 : — 

Sir W. Thomson has estimated that the number of atoms in a 
cubic inch of air is to be expressed by the figure 3, followed by no 
fewer than twenty ciphers. The brain of the ant doubtless con- 
tains more atoms than an equal volume of air; but even if we sup- 
pose them to be the same, and if we take the size of an ant's brain 
to be a little globe one-thousandth of an inch in diameter, we are 



380 THE LIGHT OF LIFE. 

able to form some estimate of the number of atoms it must con- 
tain. The number is to be expressed by writing down 6, and fol- 
lowing it by eleven ciphers. We can imagine these atoms 
grouped in so many various ways that even the complexity of the 
anf s brain may be intelligible when we have so many units to 
deal with. Take a million and a half of little black marks, put 
them in a certain order, and we have a wondrous result — Darwin's 
"Descent of Man." This book consists of about 1,500,000 letters, 
placed one after the other in a certain order. Whatever be the 
complexity of the ant's brain, it is still hard to believe that it could 
not be fully described in 400,000 volumes, each as large as Dar- 
win's work. Yet the number of molecules in the ant's brain is at 
least 400,000 times as great as the number of letters in the mem- 
orable volume in question. — Longman'' s Magazine. 

CHAPTER XII. 

He whom we love, whose honor we most respect, is he who has 
most denied and subdued himself ; who has made the most entire 
sacrifice of appetites and passions and private interest to God, and 
virtue, and mankind ; who has walked in a rugged path, and clung 
to good and great ends in persecution and pain ; who, amidst the 
solicitations of ambition, ease, and private friendship, and the 
menaces of tyranny and malice, has listened to the voice of con- 
science, and found a recompense for blighted hopes and protracted 
suffering in conscious uprightness and the favor of God. — Dr, 
Channing. 



LIFE IN THE LIGHT. 

As sequel to the volume entitled "The Light of 
Life," for its further development and illustration, 
with criticism upon some unscriptural forms and 
modes in Christian doing, defective theories, and im- 
perfect practice of Christianity, the following Chap- 
ters, under the above title, are ready for the type and 
the press. Their construction and manner of illustra- 
tion are similar to those of the other volume, and they 
will make another, perhaps, equal in size: — 
I — Some Elements in Christianity. 
II — Sympathy. — Its Divineness. 
Ill — Selfishness. — Its Bane and Antidote. 
IV — Individuality and Association — in Wobk. 
V — The Ministry of Women. 
VI — Potency of the Writing — with the Press. 
VII — The Possible in Christian Unity, 



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